Immortal
by wattamelon19
Summary: Vladimir has issues. His brother is the bane of his existence, Stefan has been captured by the Volturi, and he can't seem to take his eyes off of a newborn named Laura. What happens when they go to rescue Stefan and "accidentally" start another war with the Italian rulers? And have you ever wondered why the Romanians are so bitter? Get ready to find out.
1. The one with the Slubberdegullions

**A/N: I find Vladimir awesome. Him and Stefan are probably my favorite vampires, besides Benjamin of course. He's the best ever. But anyways, it seems that I always write fics about the characters that nobody wants to read about! Give this one a chance…please. I shall not disappoint, I promise. This is part of my **_**Existence**_** series, which also includes my other Twilight fic, **_**Life**_**. It's about Benjamin and Tia! Go check it out! Review (:**

**Disclaimer for the whole rest of the story: I don't own Twilight! Not even close. Or Go Fish. Don't own that either. **

**~Blessed are those who trust in the Lord~**

Curse those Italian idiots. They're too smart. No, not smart. They are a group of slubberdegullions. That's right. It's a word. There's not one good thing that can be said for them, except that it's good they…no. Nothing comes to mind.

Stefan and I have been waiting for so long, _too _long, to get revenge on them. I miss the easy life of ruling. I miss being terrified of. I want people to come willingly into our castle, knowing what we are and what we will probably do to them if we're thirsty enough (Never eat whilst full. The sloshing sound you make when you move gets to be very annoying after a while), and they still keep coming back! We fascinated them. Of course, they were plotting to kill us behind our backs, but you know. That's to be expected when you are a monster.

When the Cullens were having that little _altercation_ of theirs with the Slubberdegullions (It's official. That is the Volturi's new name. I wonder if Stefan and I can get everyone to call them that. And we could make a big scene of it, and make them come to Romania, and then kill them all! Yes, that does sound fun.), we finally thought we would get our chance. But _no_. Darn vegetarian vampires and their peacefulness. They need some rebellion in them! A fighting spirit. That does everyone some good.

I needed to hunt. I had been cooped up in this little shack we were forced to stay in for too long. _Why_ must our existence be kept a secret? I'M A VAMPIRE AND I'M PROUD OF IT. Stefan agrees. They are _Slubberdegullions_.

I feel like I'm repeating myself. Bottom line: I hate the Italians. End of story.

"I'm outta here," I told Stefan, who was so bored he was playing Go Fish with himself. Oh, the perks of vampirism. You get so good at card games that you can't even beat yourself.

"K," he said, too engrossed in his game to look at me. I rolled my eyes. Stefan was one of those people (vampires, whatever) who spoke like three words in one day. I didn't agree with that. I smashed the deck of cards he was holding down to the ground.

"Dude. I am _leaving_. In the _daylight_. How mad do you think that'll make the Slubberdegullions?" Unlike the Cullens, we Romanians do not have constant cloud cover and rain. When we walk outside, _boom_. We go into sparkle mode.

Stefan just looked at me. "Slubberdegullions?" Wow. He was up to two words now and it wasn't even twelve yet! This could be a record-breaking moment, ladies and gentlemen.

I explained my new nickname to him. And he laughed. _Yes_! Stefan had been so distant lately. I knew he had something weighing on his mind. I wasn't going to ask him what it was. He would tell me when he was ready. He always did.

I sound like a fourteen-year-old girl talking about her boyfriend that she's been dating for three days. Yeah. I'm going out now.

I didn't bother to put on the heavy coat I usually wore around the city. You wouldn't believe how many women gave me strange looks when I went out without it. I think they even had a nickname for me. I was Paper-Skin 1, and Stefan was Paper-Skin 2. Oh, if they only knew.

I stepped out of the shack. Oh, it was beautiful out here. Snow had fallen lightly sometime during the night, making everything look both dusty and brand new at the same time. There was a tree out here, and it was probably my favorite thing in the whole village. Stefan and I planted it some three hundred years ago, and it was the oldest piece of wood within seventy miles. Nobody knew that except us two, of course, but it was still cool. We called the tree Helen. It just seems like such a tree name, you know? Ah, you probably don't know. Never mind.

I ran around for a long time. I hadn't done that in so long. Not since we had come back from Washington. And no matter what anybody says about _newborns_, only vampires over the age of 1,700 are fast. Those younglings don't even know what speed is. I, however, do. I know a lot of stuff.

But apparently, I do not know when people are watching me. I've never really had a reason to before. I'm not ashamed of what I am. Oh, I don't want to get into that right now. I'll go on for _hours_, and, well, that's just not very interesting, is it?

Back to being watched. I didn't see her until I was grinning and laughing at myself like an idiot. What can I say? Running fast makes me all jittery.

That is, until I saw the most beautiful person ever watching me from behind the tree. Then _she _was what was making me jittery. Not the running.

She had the most gorgeous hair; the same color as my eyes (which is burgundy, by the way), and it was wavy and short and I wanted to touch it. How odd. I haven't wanted to touch a girl's hair in very many years.

Her eyes were a really light green, _seafoam_; I believe it's called. I wanted to see those eyes when she was smiling at me. Yeah. She would be so pretty if she smiled.

That's when I realized she wasn't smiling. She was staring at me, not exactly scared, but almost intrigued. Like I was a species she had never seen before. She had that look in her eye that said _I _have _to figure out how you work_. I smirked. So she was curious?

It dawned on me that I should probably stop running. How was she supposed to talk to me if all she could see was a blonde blur, running around in really fast circles? The snow beneath my feet had long melted, destroyed by the heat from my feet. Ha! That rhymed.

I have some sort of an obsession with rhymes. Don't ask; Stefan got me started. He is one weird dude sometimes.

Should I talk to her? She was still looking at me, her mouth hanging open in the cutest way. Okay, more important question. _Could _I talk to her? Would my voice work if I happened to be standing next to her? What if I repulsed her? Would she call me Paper-Skin like the other inhabitants of the village?

Ah. Too many questions. How did teenagers do this on a daily basis? I was nearly two thousand years old, for goodness sakes. I shouldn't be nervous. I was _Vladimir_. Vladimir was cool. Vladimir was a vampire. Vladimir was scared of the pretty girl.

I took a deep breath, which felt weird, because I haven't done that in like twelve years. Darn it! Stefan won the who-can-hold-your-breath-the-longest contest. Yeah, talking to her was worth it. And maybe I just wouldn't tell him. What he doesn't know won't hurt him, right?

I walked over to where she was. She had retreated slightly into the woods when I stopped running, so it took me a good ten seconds to find her again. Good thing red hair sticks out next to snow.

She was so _preeettyyy_. If Stefan were here, he would tell me that I was becoming "plum weak North of my ears". He has a _bit_ of an Old West obsession, and that's his way of calling me stupid. Slubberdegullion. That's quickly becoming my favorite word.

What do all guys do when talking do girls? Say something stupid, that's what. My genius idea of a greeting was not, "Hi." Not even, "How _you _doin?" **(A/N: That was for you, Michaela. Teehee. Vladimir pulled a Joey!) **No, I said the worst thing ever.

"How did you get here? This place is supposed to be secret."

Yeah. That definitely sounded like I wished she wasn't here, which I most definitely did not. Nope, nope, nope. I wanted her to stay here, possibly forever. And ever and ever.

She raised her eyebrows at me. "I come here all the time. You two aren't as hidden as you seem to think."

"What? Does everyone know about us? Because I am _not_ moving again. Well, unless you happen to know where any secret castles are. Then I would definitely move. I really miss living in a castle."

Her eyes widened. Oh, crap. _Now you've done it Vladimir. She's going to start asking questions and you'll freak her out. Way to go._

But she didn't ask any questions. She just held her hand out to me, and I assumed I was supposed to shake it. That was how humans greeted each other, right? I think I remember doing that in Washington to Bella when I first met her. Newborn.

So I shook her hand. If she found my cold skin weird, then she did a good job of hiding it. I mean, she had already seen me running, and like I said before, I don't run slowly. Why was she so calm? That was definitely weird, considering her eyes were filled to the brim with curiosity.

"Laura," she said. Huh. She had a chipped tooth, right in the front. It was a big chip too, definitely noticeable. It stuck out to me because it didn't quite fit with her. I made a mental note to ask about that later.

"Vladimir," I replied. She smiled. The first words that ran through my mind were, _I KNEW IT_. I knew she would look awesome when she smiled.

I smiled back. Oh, Stefan was going to kill me. Well, we needed to talk about something other than the Italian's and our revenge, anyways. A change of subject would be good.

"I just thought I would let you know that your brother has arrived in town. They sent me down here to tell you that. He said he needed to talk to you because it's urgent."

I frowned. "By brother, do you mean Stefan? Tall, dark hair, generally annoying, looks nothing like me?"

"Yeah, because I'm GORGEOUS!" Stefan's voice came from the shack. I rolled my eyes.

"No, not him. Uh, this one kind of looks like you. He's got the red eyes, the blond hair, the pale skin. A hint of an Italian accent?"

Uh oh. That brother. Well, that was going to cause some problems, now wasn't it? Especially because Stefan didn't exactly _know _he was my brother. Caius, I mean. There's a story to go along with this, but I'm not telling you now.

"Laura?" I asked. "Where is he?"

"At my house. My mom said he could stay with us and I went to find you because I said I knew where you lived."

_Crap_. _Oh, she did _not_ know what she just got herself into. And her mom was probably dead by now. Caius didn't like to go too long without killing someone. He said it made him "soft". _

"STEFAN!" I yelled, although I knew I didn't need to. He had probably been listening for a while now. He came outside immediately, introducing himself to Laura, who still didn't look even remotely surprised at our nonhuman actions. She definitely knew something.

I didn't want to be too bold, but it had to be done. I grabbed Laura and threw her on my back, taking off into the woods, with Stefan right on my heels. I had some explaining to do.

**A/N: This got started really quickly, but introductions and slow first chapters get so old after a while. I love making Vladimir all lovesick and teenager-like. He's very fun to write. **

**Review and tell me what you think! I'll update in a day or two because I'm just chock full of ideas right now! **


	2. The one where rusty sporks are scary

_The one with the rusty spork _

I've met many people in my life, but none are as…Laura-like as Laura. She didn't ask any questions, didn't scream, didn't act like anything was out of the ordinary. Which of course made Stefan and I very paranoid. We were running 100 miles an hour through the forest. We had red eyes. We were "those guys" that never showed up around the village. The ones that had lived in the sketchy old shack at the edge of the woods for as long as everyone can remember yet we never seem to age a day.

It was almost annoying, in a way. Were we not interesting anymore? Were vampires no longer something to be scared of?

Looks like we were going to have to turn up the scare factor a little bit. Well, if we beat Caius to it. He was pretty scary, and he wouldn't hesitate to take out the little village where we had resided for the past forty years. I know, I know. It's a huge risk staying in one place that long and blah blah blah. This village happened to stand on top of our ruined castle, thank you very much. We were _not_ about to leave anytime soon. Unless a golden opportunity were to present itself. Like if a member of the Slubberdegullions themselves were to show up looking for us. Then we would probably high tail it out of there until the coast was clear.

_No_, we were not scared. And believe me when I say that we are beyond prepared for something like this. We didn't really care why Caius was here. If he was here, then he was on our turf. He should be killed. End of story.

But I'm afraid Laura thought otherwise. When I told Stefan that he was in the village, he got that look in his eye. The one that said that he was ready for some serious payback.

That was when Laura went nuts on us.

"OH, NO. I DON'T THINK SO, MISTERS! You two atre _not _about to go into that village and kill that man. No. I don't care if he chased you around the world fourteen times with a pitchfork in his hand demanding that you make him pickles for all eternity. I _love_ him."

If vampires could faint, then I would be on the ground right about now. And I don't think I would be waking up anytime soon. My heart felt like it had been stomped on several times by someone wearing really sharp soccer cleats.

"Hold on there bucko," Stefan said. (See! I _told_ you. He's obsessed with the Old West.) "You love him?"

Laura nodded so fast I thought her head was going to fall off. Wonderful. The one human –who also happens to be a very gorgeous girl- that I actually think is worth talking to is in love with Caius. I was going to have to come up with a nickname for him. Charlatan. Yeah, that seems to fit Caius perfectly, considering the word means fraud. Burning someone's castles just for eternal glory and rule seemed pretty fraud-like to me.

"And you should too," she said, pointing to me, "he _is _your brother, after all."

Well poop in a bucket. She wasn't supposed to say _that_. I had been trying to tell her that with my eyes for the past ten minutes now, but I guess she doesn't have that ability. Stefan and I do. We've been able to hold completely silent conversations with just our eyes for years now.

I turned to Stefan, whose eyes were about the size of the glass windows we used to have in our castle. And that's pretty big, just so you know. Oh no. I knew what was coming.

When Stefan got mad, he didn't talk. He didn't yell, or try to solve it in any rational way. No, he went straight for the physical side of the solution. But it did help us with our fighting skills, so I can't say I'm really disappointed about it.

He tackled me around the waist and smashed me into the snow, plowing me straight back into a tree. The trunk cracked right down the middle with a sharp sound like a gunshot, but about ten billion times louder.

"Whoa, Stefan! What if that was Helen?" I asked, referring to our tree that sat outside of the shack.

"It wasn't Helen," he grunted, and started trying to rip my arms off. I rolled my eyes and fought back, using the skills I had built up for a millennium and a half.

**OoOOoO**

I'm not really sure how long we fought. Long enough for Laura to climb a tree that was out of the fight-zone and make friends with a bird that had a nest up there. She was _so_ likeable! Even birds couldn't resist her.

Gah. I was starting to sound like those shifter thingys back in Washington when they had, what did they call it, imprinted? Yeah, that was it. I sounded like a werewolf that had imprinted. Only in vampire form. Lovely.

Stefan stopped trying to yank off my head quite abruptly. He ran around the forest a few times, and then sat down cross-legged right in the middle of the small clearing we had created with our fighting.

"Spill it, Vladimir," he said, with carefully controlled rage. Oh he was mad all right. His eyes were especially black today, the ultimate sign of a bad mood. He's never happy when he's thirsty. I just hoped he would go after Laura in his anger.

"Okay," I said, and sat down. This was weird for me. I told Stefan _everything_. He was my best friend, my only companion for so long. I didn't like keeping secrets from him, but I couldn't exactly walk up to him one day and say, "hey, Stefan, you remember Caius? The member of the Volturi that you hate so much, more that all the others combined? Yeah, well, he's kind of my brother."

Not something I wanted to do. But I did owe him an explanation, and if I didn't, he just might explode. Then I would be alone forever, and I would have to change every single revenge plan we had ever thought of. That was also something I did not want to do.

I told Stefan. I told him about how Caius was born when I was eleven, and how my mother hated him from the moment she saw him. I was the favorite child, and she made sure he knew it for the first seven years of his life. And then she moved to Romania with me one night, leaving Caius alone with our crazy aunt, Constanta.

Past that point, I'm not really sure what happened to Caius. I know Constanta died at some point after he was changed, probably because he killed her. He hunted everyone he knew from his human life for years after he became a vampire, determined to kill each and every one of us. And he almost did. He got everyone except for me.

That was when Stefan and I were still powerful. The Volturi were rising in Italy, and we knew of them, but we didn't consider them a threat. We ruled. Nobody else. We didn't even consider the fact that someone might try to overthrow us, and that was our downfall.

We were so used to the easy life. And that was when we were in petrify mode, too. It was the strangest feeling, petrifying. You know how if you sit in one place for too long and your butt goes completely numb and you're just like, whoa, I must MOVE! It's kind of like that, only you can't move. You know you should, and you really want to, but you just cannot make your body do it.

And that was when the Volturi decided they would attack us. They didn't kill us, no, we were _way_ too ninja for that. But they did something worse. They burned our castles, burned the villages around them, and burned our lives while they were at it. The humans that had "loved" us turned against us and helped the Volturi like they had been waiting to do that for a very long time.

It was almost unnatural at how quickly they turned against us and how powerful their hatred was. It was like someone was controlling them.

When I finished the story, Stefan just stared at me. He didn't have that I-am-going-to-castrate-you-with-a-rusty-spork look in his eyes anymore. I guess I should tell you that I have this crazy fear of sporks. I mean, seriously. What are they? A fork? A spoon? They're just _unnatural_.

"So you're related to the Scum? _Sweet_! Do you know how that affects our plans? AH! Okay, we could break into their sewer of a castle and get him, and you could talk to him about how bad his childhood was! This is _perfect_," he hissed, all excited.

I just stared at him. That was the most words he had said since we came back from Forks. _Now_ we were talking! Stefan was back, all pumped and ready for revenge. It's nice to have a best friend.

And then we remembered Laura. She was still up in the tree, trying to get the bird to hop up to her shoulder. If I were the bird, I would be on her shoulder before she even asked me to. She was so cute, the way her cheeks were all pink from the blood running beneath them.

I bet she would taste good. Real good. _No, Vladimir_. _You cannot eat Laura. Remember the Great Pudding Incident of 1944? A repeat of that would be a very bad thing. You do not want her blood. It would taste like…a tree frog. Tree frogs are gross._

"What do we do with her?" Stefan asked, keeping his voice so low that even I could barely hear him.

"I don't know. What would you do if you were in love with-"

"Caius? Probably kill him."

"Yeah, after you killed yourself."

"True. So if we sneak up on her, knock her out, kill Caius, which will make the Slubberdegullions -_nice_ nickname for them by the way- very mad and then they come here and they're so blinded by rage and sadness that they attack us, but because we have so much skill, we kill them. Sound like a plan?"

"Works for me, but we still haven't figured out what to do with Laura."

"You're in love with her, she is your problem," Stefan said, winking at me.

"_What_? I am not in love with her!" I hissed, glancing over at Laura. Good. She was still playing with the bird. Hopefully she didn't hear Stefan say that. That would have been beyond embarrassing.

"Vlad, I haven't seen you look at a girl like that since Gabriela," Stefan said.

I shot him a _did you really just pull that card?_ look.

"You ready?" he asked, changing the subject. I dropped the issue, mostly because I want in the mood to get in another fight with Stefan. Two in one day was pushing it.

Was I ready for this? Was I ready to _finally_ attack Caius? Well, duh! But I didn't want Laura to get mad at me. What if she did? I would probably get pretty mad if a "creeptacular bloodsucker" like me killed the _evil_ creeptacular bloodsucker I loved.

See? I was so much better than Caius. He was evil and creepy, whereas I was just creepy. And I was funny. Also, I'm kind of adorable. Not in the "dark and mysterious" way that Stefan is, but the light and smiley way. Although I do have quite a bit of a dark side. Darth Vader got nothin' on me.

"Yeah, I'm ready," I told Stefan, who got a look of evil glee in his eyes. I'm sure I had that look too. Only mine was stronger, because I didn't tell Stefan the whole story about my _wonderful_ brother and mine upbringing.

There's more to it. A _lot_ more. There's a reason why I hate Caius so much, and a lot of it has nothing to do with the events that happened fifteen hundred years ago.

Yeah. I know. Because _believe_ me, it takes a lot to hate someone as much as I do, and I never hate without cause. It takes too much effort and all that. Being nice is just so much easier sometimes, you know?

"Laura?" I asked. She jumped, as if she had forgotten we were there. She tilted her head, almost like she was listening to instructions.

"Yeah?"

"Come on," Stefan and I said in unison, "We have some havoc to wreak."

**A/N: Laura is sneaky. Well, she isn't sneaky. Actually, she has no idea what she's doing right now. But the evil mastermind does! And no, the mastermind is not me. It is a character, though. **

**Review!**


	3. The one where we are evil geniuses

_The one with evil geniuses_

We were evil geniuses. _Evil geniuses_! Oh, nobody could discover our plan. I mean, we had been working on it for way to long for it to be considered healthy, so it better be a good plan.

And it was. It was an EVIL GENIUS plan. The more I say that, the more I feel like a, guess what, evil genius. Therefore, I shall not shut up for a good ten minutes. I will say evil genius until you have dreams about me at night and you think, wow, that guy looks like an evil genius. I should stay away from him.

Unless you happen to be Laura Kervowski (yeah I got her last name. BOOM!). Then you should not stay away from me, because I shall not be evil to you.

I wiggled my fingers in anticipation. I was _so_ ready for this. Stefan and I kept exchanging glances as we walked through the forest. He was popping his fingers, which sounded really menacing because every time he did it, it was like throwing a large boulder against Mount Everest. That's another perk of vampirism: you are an indestructible _rock_. Well, unless you happen to be on the receiving end of mine and Stefan's anger. Then you become slightly less indestructible and quite a bit more dead.

"What are you guys planning to do?" Laura asked in that beautiful tinkling voice she had.

Stefan shot me a _DO NOT TELL HER_ look. I nodded slightly, so he would know I understood. I told you we could hold silent conversations, didn't I? I'm pretty sure I did.

"We're going to talk to him. See what he wants. What exactly did he tell you when he arrived at your house?" I said.

"He just asked if I knew Vladimir. I said no, but that I knew where you and him –she jerked her head towards Stefan- lived. He told me to get you and to say it was urgent."

I looked at Stefan. Something wasn't quite right here. Caius never came to Romania. They sent Demetri or Felix after us whenever they felt like it. Never Caius or Marcus or Aro. The leaders of the Volturi were scared of us.

And they should be.

"Was anyone else with him?" Caius was quickly moving up on my list of Nitwits from number seven to number three. He was in the danger zone.

Watch out Caius. You _really_ don't want an angry Vladimir after you. Or an angry Stefan. Together, we were double trouble.

"He comes here all the time, always asking about you two. Nobody has ever said anything, though. We're all too scared of you. And he brought a tiny blonde girl with him. Jane, I think her name was."

"We scare you more that Caius? _Yeeaah_!" Stefan yelled, punching a fist in the air. "That is what I'm _talking_ about!"

Then he realized who Caius had brought with him. He bit his lips nervously, a look of apprehension coming into his eyes. Stefan has this issue with Jane. One time, she locked him in a tower for four months, only letting him drink rats. I would've broken him out of course, but Jane was, well, _scary_. That woman was a witch, and her brother was too. Witch twins.

Stefan would never tell you this, but he's afraid of Jane. Well, not of Jane, but of that pain thing that she does. It reminds him of when he was a teenager, before he was turned, and how he had been tortured one time. That used to happen a long time ago. If people wanted to torture someone, then they would grab a random person off of the street and do it. And it wasn't something like rape or whatever villains do nowadays; it was hardcore _torture_. Like if you came out of their chamber, then you were a lucky lucky man.

Stefan happened to be lucky. He was the only that I know of one to make it out of that chamber.

I didn't particularly like Jane, but she was better than her brother, Alec. He killed her. He killed my beautiful, wonderful, Gabriela. I missed her _so_ much. That woman was perfect. Perfect, I tell you! She put up with my general craziness; Stefan's…everything, and she was as eager for revenge on the Volturi as we were. She was so nice. That motherly one in the Cullen's coven, I think her name was Esme, reminded me a lot of her. The way she cared for the shifters even though they were supposed to be enemies, the way she didn't judge Stefan and I for our _interesting_ past, and how she really did want peace between the Volturi and us. She wanted us to forgive them. And do you know what? I almost did. Just to make Esme happy. But then I saw Alec with that little taunting smile of his. Throughout the whole witness standoff, he was shooting me looks that clearly said, _I killed your mate. I KILLED her. I dare you to try and kill me. Don't you want to do that Vladimir? Avenge your wife. She would love you for it. She probably hates you now because you haven't done it yet. You've forgotten about her, Vladimir. She hates you. Hates you_.

And the forgiveness nonsense went right out the door. I think it got ran over by a tank somewhere along the way to Antarctica, the only place where there is peace. Do you want to know why Antarctica is peaceful? Because penguins can't argue. That's why.

I heard a sound similar to an avalanche, which meant Stefan was cracking his neck. "I can take care of Jane." He glanced at me, as if he was asking my permission.

He can have Jane as long as I get Caius. Caius was _mine_.

"You guys are creepy," Laura decided.

"So we've heard," we said at the same time. Stefan and I did that often. Something about being with him for two thousand years had made our brains run on the same frequency.

"Well you don't have to go all _dreary_ on me. I didn't say it was a bad thing, did I?" She turned and winked at me, nearly causing me to stop right where I was and talk about how neat butterflies were for the next twelve hours. And do you know what? If she wanted me to talk about butterflies (which I despise, by the way), then I would have done it. Anything to make her happy.

"She has you more whipped than a fiddler's clerk," Stefan said. _Not again with the Old West stuff_.

"And you, my friend, are a flibbertigibbet."

He put his hand to his heart and gave me a look of fake astonishment. "I am not! Have you ever known me to gossip?" **(A/N: Flibbertigibbet means someone who likes to gossip.)**

"Uh, yes. When we were in Washington, you bought up every single tabloid that you could find dealing with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie."

Stefan stopped dead in his tracks while Laura nearly fell over laughing. _I made her laugh_!

"HOW did you find that out?! I was so secretive about it," he said, looking very paranoid all of a sudden.

"That was your downfall. When are you ever secretive around me?"

"That is true. So you decided you would investigate?"

"Sure did. You're really bad at hiding-"

"Stuff? Yeah, cause you know where I'll hide-"

"Things. Find new hiding places!"

"I don't waaannnaaa!" he whined. In case you didn't notice, we have this habit of continuing each other's sentences. Why not do it when you know what the other person is going to say? Plus it really freaks people out, which is a bonus.

I'm really good at freaking people out. Maybe that's what my cool talent is. You know, like how that Edward guy can read minds, or how the witch twins can cause pain and numbness, or how Aro (I called him Weirdo) can see thoughts. Maybe I can scare people.

It seems like the entire Romanian coven got left out of the talents deal. I mean, there used to be well over a hundred of us, and not a single vampire possessed a gift. That was another advantage the Volturi had.

Well didn't they just get the lucky side of everything? Gah. Their luck desperately needed to change, and believe me when I say that I _will_ be the one to change it.

"You ready to put this plan into action?" Stefan asked.

"More than ready," I replied.

We sprinted towards the village. Laura started to tell us where her house was, because she apparently thought we were just going to talk to Caius and Jane and not to kill them, but we told her to shush. We already knew where they were. I could smell their stench from three miles away. It was like dead three thousand year old raccoons lying out in the sun in the Sahara desert on a record-breaking hot day, which is to say they smelled _bad_. I would rather smell werewolves than them, and that's saying something.

Caius was right beside the sign that said _Dacian_, which was the name of our little village. He smirked at us, almost smiling when he saw Laura draped over my back. I shot him a smug look that said, _I've got your girl_.

He sent me one back that said _I don't care. And I hate you._

The feeling is mutual.

"Stefan," Caius said as a greeting.

Stefan just nodded. I chuckled. He never talked to the Volturi. The only one he somewhat acknowledged was Jane, and that was a grunt or a hiss whenever they were fighting.

Speak of the devil and she will appear. Jane stepped out from behind Caius, looking smug and witchy as usual. I saw Stefan's eyes tighten at the sight of her. Oh, this was going to be too much fun.

"You know," Caius began, "I was going to be civil. I didn't _intend_ on killing your mother, Laura, and Jane didn't _intend_ on changing Fane, but things happen." Laura screamed. A high-pitched, anguish filled sound that made me want to cry with her and tell her everything was going to be okay. I felt her trembling against me, felt her tears soak through my thin shirt. Hey, maybe she would decide that she didn't love Caius anymore after this.

That would be awesome.

"You know what happened here, right here, beside this sign, a thousand years ago, Stefan? Do you remember? Oh, no, you don't. Because you were too busy dealing with Demetri, who I don't recall you beating. He beat you. And Felix beat Liliana."

Stefan fell to his knees. _Uh-oh_. If he was mad before, then things just got a whole lot worse. I wouldn't want to be on the receiving side of that anger.

"Liliana," Stefan whispered.

"Gabriela," I said, keeping my voice as quiet as his. He looked at me, then at the devastated Laura over my shoulders. I set her down, slowly and gently. She didn't say anything, just rolled over on her stomach and continued to cry, repeating the name Fane over and over, with an occasional mother thrown in there.

Stefan and I looked at each other and smiled. _Sweet, sweet justice_. We charged at them.

We were evil geniuses and they didn't even know it.

**A/N: Their little mini battle will be in chapter four. There's still a bunch of this story left to go, so I promise we aren't near the end. Not even close! Read on, dear followers. **

**Review! Please review! Pleeeeeaaaseeee. **


	4. The one where I am tricked

**A/N: I wasn't going to put this up until tomorrow, but I couldn't resist.**

_The one where I am tricked_

I went straight for Caius, plowing him down and creating a very nice looking trench in the snow. He shredded my shirt, leaving me in nothing but my black jeans and boots. The sun was shining, which made my exposed skin sparkle.

Ew. Sometimes I just felt like a glitter machine. I know, I know. It's so manly that all you girls reading this just screamed. I'll be signing autographs at 4:30.

"Ah!" Caius yelled. Ha! My glitter skin was blinding him, and he did it to _himself_! Oh, the irony.

I heard Stefan grunt, which meant Jane was using her witch gift. Do you remember how I said we were evil geniuses? Well this is where the genius part comes it. We were evil to start with.

See, in order for Jane to cause pain (it rhymed! And the obsession returns. I should be a poet and every single poem that I write will expose us vampires to the world, creating some thoroughly mad Italian slugs) she has to be standing completely still. She can't move or focus on anything else because it will break her concentration.

I got off of Caius and slammed into Jane, this time creating a slightly smaller trench. "Ugh," I said, "You don't fall as well as Caius. You need to work on _uhhhh_." That last part was when Jane turned the witchness onto me. I let myself fall limp, trying not to yell or twitch at the pain that was now coursing through my body. And it wasn't just physical pain, either. Images of Gabriela, of us together flew through my mind. But it wasn't happy memories. It was the day the Volturi came and she was screaming because they killed her sister. It was the day that we realized our war with the Italians (the first one) wasn't just going to last a few months. It was going to last years, two hundred and eleven to be exact. The time that we got in a huge fight and she left me for a year. The time that we _thought_ we could take down the Volturi with our large group of allies and Alec killed her, or at least that was what Jane told me afterwards when she was gloating at us. That memory stayed in my mind, the pain it caused was as fresh as if it had just happened.

_Any time now, Stefan_. _I don't want to watch my wife die anymore_.

And then I heard it. What did I hear, you ask? The sound of sweet victory, that's what. It sounded a little like this.

Imagine a very large, very dark boulder. This boulder has been sitting in the same spot on a very steep hill for bajillions of years, waiting for a smaller boulder to roll beside of it so it can smash it. Finally, the small boulder sits beside the big one. The big one rolls up the hill, all the way to the top, and comes speeding down, smashing _straight_ into the little one. And the little boulder breaks into little tiny pieces forever and ever.

Ladies and gentlemen, that is the sound of witch twin number one's (AKA Jane) head being ripped off.

This is where, in the movies, a lame sound affect would play. _DUN DUN DUN. _I stood up, shoving Gabriela out of my mind. I didn't want to think about her anymore. It was too depressing.

Stefan high-fived me. He had this crazy look of glee on his face, and I can imagine that I looked the same. One twin down, one left. They were going to pay for each and every one of our followers they killed. Every coven member, every loyal human, and every stone in the castles they burned. They would pay for lying to _everyone_, for calling themselves saints when we all knew they were the farthest things from it. They stole our methods. We had the idea of a guard before them. We had the idea of our food being brought to us, _before_ them. We ruled before they were even changed.

And they took every bit of that away from us.

Seeing Jane made me feel better. I could almost feel Gabriela smiling down at me from Heaven. Her and Liliana were probably saying, _Yeah! Stefan and Vladimir just kicked some vampire boooooty_!

"I bet you're mad enough to steal a fly from a blind spider, aren't you Caius?" Stefan said. Caius was staring at the witch, a look of utter shock on his face. I almost busted out laughing. I hadn't seen him this surprised since…well, since I used to be in one of my _moods_ and I would walk around our hut, muttering and whispering about how they were out to get us.

I'm pretty sure I was the worlds first schizophrenic. No worries, the vampire venom got rid of all that, but my little _condition_ helps Stefan and I when the Volturi get bored and sent Demetri after us, just to see if we can outrun him again. We always do.

Then Caius smiled. It was a smile so big and so wide that my paranoia kicked in, wondering what we had just gotten ourselves into. I mean, we weren't stupid. We knew that Jane was Aro's favorite. Her gift was just too useful to pass up. He was going to want revenge; a fight was inevitable. We wanted all of this.

But Caius's smile was so _sneaky_. My first thought was that they finally got that Alice chick from Washington to join the Volturi and he knew what was going to happen before it did. But then I realized that that made no sense at all. Alice wouldn't join the _Volturi_. Not after what they almost did to her family.

Then I saw that he wasn't smiling at us. He was smiling at Laura, who was no longer crying. She looked happy and she was _staring at me_. At first I thought she was going to high-five me for helping with killing Jane, but she went a little further than hand-to-hand contact.

She kissed me.

The first thought that ran through my mind was _BLOOD!_ She was full of warm, sweet blood, and she was _so_ close to me. It was only one bite. She wouldn't feel a thing. But then I thought, wait a second. Laura's kissing me!

And I kissed her back. Boy oh boy, did I kiss her back. She tasted like mint and happiness, with a little bit of chocolate in there somewhere. Her hair was as soft as I thought it would be.

That was when the rational side of me came back, banging on the inside of my brain with a large hammer. I shoved Laura away from me, a little harder than I had meant to. She fell back in the snow with her legs sticking straight up. I would've laughed, but I was too mad for that.

I had heard little shuffling sounds, but I didn't think anything of them. I thought it was just Stefan kicking Caius's behind. But it wasn't. It was Caius taking Stefan. The kiss was a trick, just a distraction, and nothing more. My companion for over two millennia had been taken by my greatest enemy.

Well isn't this just awesome?

Laura was a traitor. Granted, I hadn't really asked her whose side she was on, but I just assumed it was ours. Because who in their right mind would want to be on the Slubberdegullion's side? Laura, apparently.

She was staring at me with this dazed look on her face. Her lips were all red and swollen from our kiss, something that made me want kiss her again. And again and again and again.

_Traitor_. _She's a traitor. She _let _him take Stefan. _

But the little voice in my head said, that no, this wasn't Laura's fault. She looked clueless and completely taken aback, which was the reaction I had been looking for ever since I first saw her when I was running around Helen the tree.

I got up and ran, with no idea where I was going. I ran until I wished I had human legs and lungs that would give out if I didn't breathe enough. I wanted pain. I needed something to prove to me that this was actually real. Jane had been killed and Stefan had been taken. Caius had tricked me.

That brother of mine was really getting on my nerves. I liked it better when we didn't talk to each other.

I made it back to Dacian some hours later, where I found Laura sitting in the exact same position she had been before I left. I remembered what Caius had said earlier, about how her mom had been killed and someone named Fane had been turned.

"Laura," I said, trying very hard to keep my voice steady, "explain this. Now."

She looked up at me, her eyes all bloodshot from crying. Which reminds me. I _still_ need to hunt. No, I wouldn't hunt until I got close to Stefan. The blood would make me stronger if I abstained from it for a little while. And I would get to eat butter-noodles, which seems to be the only thing that can help me control my thirst. That and the amount of self-discipline I have.

"Caius is gifted." Laura said. "His gift is the strongest of all. It terrifies Aro. He's afraid that Caius will try and make himself the leader of the Volturi one day."

"Yeah, because taking over from us wasn't good enough," I grumbled.

"His gift is mind control."

I nearly died. "_What_? He controls people's _minds_? He could be turning Stefan against me right now. We have to go, he cannot turn him against me. Him and I are the last ones left." To my embarrassment, my voice caught when I said we were the last vampires from our coven. At least vampires couldn't cry, because I'm sure I would be doing that right about now.

"Chill, he can only do it to unsuspecting or willing people. I'm sure your buddy is pretty suspicious of him."

Three cheers for paranoia! Stefan's mind was not going to be lost. I said a thank you to God, and meant it.

"So did he do that to you? Because, no offense, but you said you were in love with him."

She raised her eyebrows so high I thought they were going to fly off of her face and become Browbirds. That would be an interesting new species. "I said that? Oh gosh. Yeah, he had me under his control, and he probably has for a few months now. Ever since this winter."

_The witness battle was in winter_. Caius had been stalking us since then? Wow. Stefan and I really needed to kick it up a notch. As much as I disliked saying it, the Volturi were one step ahead of us. But we did just kill Jane, so that puts us back at the even mark. Ha!

"How do I know he isn't controlling you now?" Please, please be able to answer that question.

"_You_ don't. But I can tell you that he isn't because I don't feel him in my mind. I'm the only person in here," she said, tapping her head.

Instead of dwelling on _that_ disturbing fact, I opted for changing the subject. That always works. Although I could've picked a better subject than the one I did.

"Did he really kill your mom? And who's Fane?"

Laura started crying again. I wanted to comfort her, but I wasn't sure how. Was I supposed to put my arm around her? Did I pat her leg? I decided for the safe option, which was staying silent until she could to answer my questions.

"Fane's my brother. He's twenty-three, and Caius has always had this weird obsession with him. He said that, if he were turned, Fane would have a gift that would outshine Alec and Jane's by a lot." My eye twitched at the mention of Alec.

Laura sighed heavily. "I'm sure he was telling the truth about my mother. I don't want to talk about that, though. Not yet."

I nodded. I knew what she meant. It took me forever before I could talk about Gabriela, and Stefan took even longer to mention Liliana without dry sobbing.

"If we're going to rescue that Stefan guy, then we'll probably need Fane. The talent that Caius assumed he would have will definitely be helpful in this situation," she said, pulling herself up. She dried her tears and stretched, looking very ready for an adventure.

I was falling more and more in love with her by the second.

Something whooshed behind me, and I was suddenly covered in a layer of very dirty snow.

"Someone call my name?" The voice sounded very excited. I turned and saw a boy who looked very much like Laura; only he was very obviously a newborn vampire. His eyes were a crazy bright red and he had dried blood on his chin. His hair was sticking up in every direction possible and he seemed to be jumping up and down at a very fast pace.

"Wow, Laur, you smell fantastic! No worries, I'm not going to eat you. Killing my sister doesn't sound too fun. Oh, hi, who are you? Why's your skin like Caius's? OH MY GOSH! Are you part of the Volturi too? _So_ cool!"

I stared at him. I was not ready for happiness. The Volturi had taken Stefan. Why wasn't everyone mourning? Why weren't they plotting their revenge?

I grabbed Fane by the collar and threw him in the snow beside Laura. He looked surprised by my strength. I explained to him that _no_, I was not part of the Volturi, and they were most definitely not cool. They were scum. Friend stealing scum.

When I was done with my story, Fane looked even more excited, something I would not have thought possible. He headed immediately towards the woods, following the footsteps left by Caius and the drag marks left by Stefan. I smiled. Stefan was resisting. We left Jane's body in the middle of the path, still headless. I threw a match on it as we walked by.

I trudged off into the woods behind Fane and Laura, the song _The Kill _by a band called _30 Seconds to Mars_ stuck in my head. It was something the big Cullen vampire, Emmett, had been listening to when we were in Washington.

_Come break me down, bury me, bury me. _

_I am finished with you. _

_What if I wanted to fight? _

_Beg for the rest of my life?_

If Stefan were here, then I wouldn't have to beg. He would know exactly what to do; he would handle this situation perfectly. I had a bad feeling that I would fail. This expedition to Italy would end exactly how the last one had.

Someone I loved would die.

**A/N: Woohoo! Long chapter! And the plot of the story has officially been started. **


	5. The one where Stefan is so far away

**A/N: If I get one review for this chapter then I might just cry. Just one review. Please! You don't even have to say anything if you don't want to, just type a random letter. I just don't feel like any of you like this story, which stinks, because I'm rather fond of it. But this is my favorite chapter so far! So yay! (:**

_The one where Stefan is so far away_

It's official. Fane is the most annoying person (both vampire and human) _ever_. He was so happy _all_ the time. I didn't know how I was supposed to make it all the way to Italy with this guy, especially because he wouldn't run. He walked, painfully slowly, and talked about every single drop of dew, every _tiny_ snowflake, that we passed.

"Look at that blade of grass! Look how fantastically shiny it is!"

I wanted to shove him into a tree, preferably Helen, because she was the most hardcore tree ever. She would whoop his vampire _butt_.

Laura had been staring at me for a while now. It was effectively keeping all of my thoughts off of Stefan, and it made me wonder if she was doing that on purpose. I was afraid to talk to her, mostly because I would stop midsentence and wait for Stefan to continue what I was saying. But he wasn't here. He couldn't do that.

I felt like a lost puppy. I _was_ a lost puppy, and I wanted my littermate back.

I looked back at Laura and flashbacks of our kiss hit my brain. The way her hands had locked around my neck after I had gotten over the initial shock of having her so close to me. How she didn't seem to mind my icy skin. She was so soft and fragile. I could break her in an instant and not even mean to.

**OoOOoO**

Posttraumatic stress disorder is mean. It comes out of nowhere, like one second, you'll be _this_ close to punching a certain annoyingly happy vampire in the face, the next you'll be on the ground, hugging your knees and begging for mercy.

It affects everyone differently. Stefan would see hallucinations of his mate, Liliana, at night. We would be lying somewhere, trying to forget about everything, when he would suddenly sit up stick straight and start talking to someone that wasn't there. It was awful for me because I had to snap him out of it, and then hear him dry sob for hours on end when he realized she was dead all over again. Sometimes it was so bad that he would dry heave **(A/N: Dry heaving is like throwing up, only without the puke)**. Believe me when I say that there is nothing worse than seeing your best friend reduced to tears that he couldn't cry night after night.

Something changed in him after she died. He became obsessed, even more that me, about getting his revenge on the Volturi. I didn't understand what fueled his fire until Gabriela was killed when we decided to attack them, years after they had overthrown us. It felt like someone had yanked the world out from underneath my feet and held it where I could see it but couldn't touch it. There was something blocking it. That something was the Volturi.

You could say I'm a little bitter about the whole thing.

But anyways, my posttraumatic stress disorder is different from Stefan's. I guess it's kind of like visions, in a way. I see everything that happened, everything that I should have done to prevent him from being taken, over and over. I heard mocking laughter in the background, and I knew it belonged to Alec. He was laughing at my failures, just like he had done the first time. The memories haunted me, and I knew they would until Stefan was beside me again.

I'm just glad vampires don't sleep. No nightmares.

I'm not sure how long I stayed on the forest floor in the fetal position. I didn't know what I was doing. I saw the two-hundred-year long war between the Volturi and the Romanians back when we were over a hundred vampires strong. I saw Stefan, Gabriela, and myself moving from place to place after we lost, trying to stay hidden from them until we could create a new army.

I remember mine and Gabriela's last conversation as if it happened yesterday.

~~ I was stroking her long hair. It fell to the small of her back and it was nearly as light as mine. We were lying in a barn, the only place that Stefan could find that had some human stench in it. We hoped that the Volturi tracker would smell that before he would smell us. Stefan had taken our small army out to hunt. He said it was because they would need their strength for the battle, but I knew what he was doing. He was giving Gabriela and I a chance for some alone time. We knew it might be the last chance we would get, so we made the most of it.

After we had finished, she had hay all over her naked body, but that didn't stop me from staring at it hungrily. She was so beautiful. I think we both knew one of us wouldn't make it out alive, but we were too stubborn to admit it.

"Do you think it will be bad, Mir?" She hardly ever called me by my full name. It was always Mir, or sometimes Nitwit, but that was only when I accidentally killed the cat. How was I supposed to know that they didn't really have nine lives? It was an honest mistake.

"I don't know. I just don't want it to be like last time."

"Yes, this time it will be short and quick," she agreed. "Just make sure you and Stefan are ready."

Our plan was to have the bulk of the army, Gabriela included, storm into the castle and drive the Italians out, where Stefan and I would be waiting to ensnare them all.

In hindsight, there was no way that it would've worked. But that was before we knew about the existence of Jane and Alec. That was our downfall. We were too cocky and sure of ourselves when really, we had no clue what we were in for. We wouldn't make that mistake again.

She turned her nearly black eyes to mine. There was the barest trace of burgundy left in them. I kissed her, relishing the feel of her lips on mine. She deepened the kiss, parting her lips to allow my tongue entrance into her mouth. I broke away so I could kiss her neck, her collarbone, her stomach. _So beautiful_.

"I love you," I murmured against her soft skin.

"I love you too. More than anything."

And that was it. We didn't say anything else for the rest of the night. We just looked at each other until we couldn't anymore, and the only reason we stopped was because we had a battle to fight. If I had have known what was going to happen, I never would have let her out of my sight. ~~

Laura pulled me out of my misery by throwing a shirt at me. I stared at it, not entirely sure what I was supposed to do with it.

"Put that on. You have to be freezing without one."

I stared down at myself for a good minute and a half before I remembered why I wasn't wearing a shirt. Caius had ripped it off during our mini battle. I threw it back to Laura.

"Vampires don't get cold."

"Yeah? Well humans do. So put the shirt on before I freeze to death."

I laughed a hollow, humorless laugh. "How will me wearing a shirt make you any warmer? You should put in on. Make your layers thicker." I tossed it back to her.

She stared at it for a few seconds before shrugging and yanking it on.

"When did we stop? We should be going still. And where's Fane?" I sounded bitter. I hoped Laura didn't think the bitterness was directed at her.

"We stopped because you dropped to your knees, whimpering and muttering. Fane went to hunt."

Oh. Well, I could do with a break from Mr. Too-Happy.

"When's he gonna be back? We have got to _move_." A thought worthy of a horror movie had just hit me. The Guard. The Volturi weren't stupid enough to send Jane and Caius out here alone, not when they were planning something like taking Stefan.

She shrugged. "How long did it take you to hunt when you were a newborn?"

"That was over two thousand years ago. I honestly have no idea."

"Oh my gosh, I'm in the secluded woods of Romania at night with a freakishly strong and fast old man-vampire! My mother would _kill_ me."

I don't know what made me laugh. Maybe it was how normal Laura made all this sound. Whatever the case, I was suddenly laughing my butt off. I almost sounded a bit hysterical.

"Why do we need to move?" she asked when I had calmed myself down.

"Huh?"

"You said we needed to move. Why?"

"Oh. Because they probably have someone following us. Most likely Demetri. They _always_ send him after us."

"Demetri?"

I explained the Volturi and their Guard with their various talents. Laura's eyes just got wider and wider as I elaborated.

"FANE!" she screeched. I was about to tell her to _SHUT UP_, but Fane walked out of nowhere, with more blood on his face.

"You rang? Ah, I see you're alive and well." Was it just me, or did he sound slightly less happy? _Woohoo! _

"We've got to keep going if we want to rescue Stefan before they can kill him, because they won't hesitate to do it," I told him.

"Why do they hate you so much?" Laura asked. I shook my head. I wasn't in the mood for that story yet.

"So what are we waiting for, then?" Fane said, wiping off the blood that was running down his arms. "Let's go while I try to figure out this gift of mine. I think it could help us."

"At vampire speed. We have to run, and we have to run fast," I said. Fane's eyes widened. What was so scary about running? I had always found it to be rather exhilarating.

"He doesn't like things that go fast. It makes him sick," Laura explained.

Well. That was a new one. I sighed and told Fane about how nothing is blurry when you run because your eyesight is beyond perfect when you're a vampire. I explained about not being able to puke because…actually, I didn't know why vampires couldn't puke or cry. Because we _did_ have blood in our bodies, didn't we? Couldn't we throw up and weep blood? You know what, never mind. That would be gross.

"Okay," he finally agreed. _Yes! One point for Vladimir!_

"Hate to rain on the parade, but how am I supposed to keep up with you two?" Laura asked.

Crap. I didn't think about that.

"Hop on, little sis!" Fane said, motioning to his back. _One point for Fane. _

"I am not getting on you. Not gonna happen, buddy boy. Not when you're covered in random people's blood."

I smiled. Laura was great. "I have no blood on me!" I practically shouted in my excitement. She hopped on my back without hesitation. _Two points for Vladimir._ She was so warm. Maybe we could run forever. And Laura could stay on my back forever. That seems like a perfect thing to do, doesn't it?

_STEFAN_! The little –and mostly annoying- voice of reason inside of me shouted.

"Right," I said, somehow managing to keep my voice calm. "Just follow me. I've had the way to their dungeons memorized for years now."

And we were off, flitting through the forest, dodging trees and other animals. Laura was giggling like crazy, as was Fane. He looked wild with excitement, and I couldn't help but smile. We were going to get Stefan back, or my name was not Vladimir M-. Ha! I bet you thought I was going to say my last name, didn't you? Well, no such luck. _No points for you_.

**A/N: Do you like it so far? I'm sorry if all the chapters seem to be fillerish. I just need to explain so much stuff! These guys have the craziest history and I'm trying to keep it pretty accurate with the book facts, only the mate names for both Stefan and Vladimir were made up because it didn't say what they were. **

**Review! Please please please please please review and I will write whatever you request! As long as it isn't inappropriate.**


	6. The one where Demetri is a chicken

_The one where Demetri is a chicken_

We made it twenty-three miles before Demetri caught up with us. Laura had fallen asleep on my back and Fane hadn't said a word for fifteen minutes. Peace and quiet.

So naturally that had to be ruined. I just wasn't expecting it to be ruined in the way that it was.

To put things simply, Demetri is a bit of an idiot. He's an excellent tracker with that gift of his, but he doesn't really pay attention to anything else but his little tracking games. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at what he did, but it's not every day that you see a who-knows-how-old vampire in a giant chicken costume.

I heard him before I saw him. It sounded like that cartoon dog, what was his name, Clifford? The big red one? I'm pretty sure it's Clifford. Anyway, Demetri sounded like what I would image Clifford to while running through snow several feet deep. _Flump. Flump. Flump_.

It woke Laura up. Before she was fully awake she was trying to flip around backwards to see what the strange sound was. I was _this_ close to clamping my hand over her mouth before she could scream because I really didn't want to draw attention to ourselves. We might be able to still get away.

"Why is there a large chicken chasing us?" she whispered, her voice all sleepy and quiet.

I registered what she said a few minutes after I was done thinking about how nice she sounded in the morning. I turned around and ran backwards, trying to catch a glimpse at whatever she had seen.

You know how Chick-Fil-A has people in a cow costume outside of their restaurants sometimes? Well, this was kind of like that, only it was Demetri in a _huge_ chicken costume, complete with feathers and teeny chicken legs and a beak.

I never thought I would see this day.

He was completely focused on us, his red eyes burning with a scary intensity. They were almost glowing. Something was different about him, excluding the chicken costume. Normally he looked mad when he chased us. Like he couldn't want anything more than to kill Stefan and I.

Now he looked determined. Not particularly mad, nor really excited. He looked like he was ready for revenge, but not against us. His eyes said, _I hate the Volturi_. How did I know that? Because I've had that look in my eyes for _way_ too long.

I stopped. I probably should have warned Fane, because he was looking back at me and running at the same time. That is, until he slammed straight into a tree with a loud crashing sound. Snow fell down on top of him, creating a very mad Fane-sickle.

"Demetri?" I asked. Demetri stopped abruptly, flapping his chicken wings to stay balanced. "Am I sensing some _rebellion_?" If he wanted to be on our side then we would be almost unstoppable. Well, if we got Stefan back. No, not _if_ we got him back, _when _we got him back.

"They killed her. They killed my Valery," Demetri said as an answer, his nostrils flaring in agitation. "I've come to help you."

Oh. I knew the Scum (the Volturi) weren't the smartest creatures around, but were they really dumb enough to kill their only tracker's mate? That is just _begging_ for justice.

It occurred to me that he could be lying. Actually, he was probably lying. He could persuade us that he was on our side, only to lead us away from Stefan and close to our deaths. This could easily be a trap.

As tempting as his offer was, I just didn't know if I could take him up on it.

"And you're probably thinking that this is a trap, and I don't blame you for that. It does seem like something I would do. But I have brought someone that you can trust. She knows that I'm telling the truth. I will not side with the Italians again."

"I prefer to call them Slubberdegullions," I said. Demetri raised his eyebrows and nodded.

"It fits them." He stepped aside, revealing a very tiny someone who had been standing behind him. The chicken costume had concealed her completely. I recognized her from the last time we stood against the Volturi.

Maggie. The vampire who could sense who was telling the truth, and who was lying. She just nodded at me, like _yeah, he ain't lyin'_. She doesn't really talk like that, I just associate the name Maggie with a really country person. I don't know why.

"I left Liam and Siobhan. I said I was helping out a friend, which is true, but it isn't the whole truth," she explained. "Demetri came to me when Caius brought Stefan back, saying something about how they were weak enough to defeat without Jane."

I looked at Demetri. "When did they kill Valery?"

He clenched his jaw, and I saw raw pain enter his eyes. She had been taken care of recently. "Alec had to have someone to take his anger out on when he found out about his sister. Valery just so happened to be in his way."

I grinned. Alec was going to get what was coming to him with both Demetri and me after him. This would be epic. "Welcome to the club. He got Gabriela too."

Demetri looked down at the ground, biting his lip like he was wrestling with himself internally. He looked like he wanted to say something, but he wasn't sure if he should or not.

"Will you take me?" he asked.

I looked around at our little group. Fane, Laura, and me. We _did_ need more vampires with us, and if Maggie said Demetri was telling the truth then I believed her. Plus we could do some serious damage with them as allies, as long as Demetri took off the ridiculous suit.

"You guys really want in on this? Because believe me, they will _not_ forget it. They'll hunt you for the rest of your eternal lives. Well, except for you, Laura. They'll try and change you, and _then_ hunt you down," I said.

Everyone nodded. A few feathers fell off of Demetri's chicken suit.

All right. I could do this. Stefan was going to be rescued, and we might not even die.

I looked at Laura. "Are you hungry? Thirsty?" At the mention of thirst, Fane's eyes lit up, all excited and ready to drain some people. "Uh-uh. No blood for _you_, Fane. Or you two." I pointed to Maggie and Demetri. "You'll be stronger if you don't drink it for a while, and then fill up on it all at once later. Trust me. I've done this countless times."

"I'll say you have," said Demetri. I glared at him.

"Just as long as you guys don't eat me," Laura put in. We all stared at her. It hadn't even crossed my mind that they might be tempted to drink her. That could be a problem. Especially with Fane the newborn around, because he might not be able to control his thirst. He _was_ looking at Laura with an expression of longing on his face.

"Change me," she said, looking completely sure of herself. It made me wonder how long she had been thinking of this. Fane hissed angrily, shielding his sister with his body.

"You'll do no such thing," he said, glaring at me.

Why did everyone always assume that _I _would be the one to change the human? I mean, yeah, if anyone were to change Laura it would be me because I wasn't going to let Maggie or Demetri do it, considering I didn't trust them all that well. Fane couldn't do it because he wouldn't be able to stop drinking once he bit her.

Demetri and I looked at each other, already planning on how to get Fane out of the way long enough so that I could bite her. I was beginning to understand why the Volturi needed him so badly. Maybe he wasn't as much of an idiot as I had originally thought.

Nah, he was an idiot.

"Fane, would you rather drink me? I don't exactly feel comfortable being the only human in a group of thirsty vampires. And you never know, I could be useful in this battle or whatever's going to happen when we get to Italy," Laura said, giving her brother the bambi-eyes treatment.

"That's no reason to throw your life away!" he insisted. "Have you even thought about this, Laura? You'll be _so___thirsty. It won't ever go away. You'll never be able to have kids. What if you fall in love with a human? What will you do then? You'll be a monster for all eternity."

"My decision," she said. She turned her eyes to me. "Is it really like that, Vladimir?"

Fane started to answer, but stopped himself when he saw the look on my face. He shut his mouth so fast it was almost comical.

"Uh, sort of. All of what he said is true, but it's _fun_. And you can run fast. You don't ever get tired and you can eat seventy-two doughnuts without gaining weight at all, which is pretty cool. And there's the immortality, which is both a pro and a con at the same time."

There weren't many positive things to say about being a vampire. But I honestly didn't resent being what I was. I liked it. This was God's plan for my life, you know? Who am I to complain?

"Change me," she repeated.

Fane walked over to Demetri and said, "You better restrain me, because I _will_ try to stop him."

I was surprised at his truthfulness. I looked at Maggie, who was giving Fane a respectful stare. She locked her arms with Demetri, shoving Fane in the middle. I smirked. They had him trapped pretty well.

I looked at Laura. "You sure? Because I can't change you back. You'll be stuck like this forever."

She looked at me, then at herself. "Go for it."

**OoOOoO**

Changing someone into a vampire is actually quite sensual if you do it the way it should be done. Some people go for the simple option of biting the human on the wrist or thigh or arm, anywhere where there's a vain.

I don't do it that way. I bit Laura on her heart, which happened to be _extremely_ close to her breast. Actually, it was right on it. She gasped with pain when I broke the skin, which just made me want to bite her more. So I did. I bit her hips and her wrists. I bit her neck once, just because that's the trademark "vampire bite" spot.

I heard Fane struggling against Demetri and Maggie behind me, but he hadn't attacked me yet, so I assumed they had him under control.

I glanced back at them. They were facing away from us so Fane wouldn't have to watch. _Smart_. Laura grabbed my face, turning to where we were facing each other. And I mean I was like an inch and a half away from her. I felt her warm breath against my lips, and before I knew what I was doing, I closed the gap between us.

She tasted like blood. It was probably from me, because I had her blood all over my face.

"This will hurt," I whispered to her. She looked terrified, but happy at the same time. I think she was glad she made this decision for herself, even though Fane told her not too.

"It already does," she said, and her eyes rolled back in her head and she fainted. Demetri and Maggie released Fane, and we all gathered around her to wait for her to start screaming.

I apologized to Fane, who had a broken look in his eyes. He just nodded at me, never taking his eyes off of Laura. I walked over to Demetri.

"Can I trust you?"

He looked straight at me. "Yes." I didn't doubt he was telling the truth.

I turned to Maggie, who had her hand on Fane's shoulder. "Can I trust you?"

She smiled, big and wide. "Always."

**A/N: Please review. I'm getting like no reviews for this story, which stinks. I'm gonna keep updating it, but I really love hearing your feedback to my writing. Please review!**

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	7. The one where we discover Fane's gift

**A/N: A huge thank you to my reviewers! You guys are amazing and awesome and I flip out every time I check fanfiction and see a new review. Keep it up!**

_The one where we discover Fane's gift_

I remember my transition from human to vampire like it happened yesterday. It was like getting stabbed with flaming knives over and over again all over my body for two days and nights; only it felt like two years.

I thought it would be the most painful thing I would ever experience. Jane's powers didn't even _begin_ to touch that. But when Gabriela died it felt exactly like being changed, flaming knives and all, but this time it didn't go away after two days. It stayed forever.

Laura reminded me a lot of myself when I was turned. She was writhing in pain, but she never screamed. Not once. She just squinted her eyes shut and squirmed all over the place. I watched her, making sure she didn't roll somewhere where she could get hurt. Her skin was becoming paler by the second as the blood stopped flowing through her veins. Her hair was getting shinier, the dark auburn color contrasting her white skin beautifully.

I would miss her light eyes. That was my favorite thing about her. No, her personality was. Or maybe it was her warmth. Or how she was shorter than me, which didn't happen often because I am 5 feet 4 inches tall. I remember when that was considered giant height. Humans used to be smaller back in the day.

Fane wasn't talking to me. I wasn't very disappointed about this, but I also didn't want him to be mad. We needed to talk and strategize. But at the moment him and Maggie were out in a clearing somewhere trying to discover how his gift worked. I thought it was confusing, but he seemed to understand it pretty well. He said he would explain it better when he got back.

I liked Demetri. For someone that used to be in the Volturi Guard, he was pretty cool. I mean, he was completely heartbroken right now and he kept repeating his mate's name to himself, but that was understandable. Both Stefan and I had done that when Liliana and Gabriela had been killed. No amount of comforting would take away his pain. A good dose of revenge on Alec would, however.

I was just afraid Demetri would kill him before I got a chance to. But that's the least of my worries at the moment.

Aro would figure this out, eventually. Demetri came of his own accord; he wasn't sent to track me. It wouldn't take a genius to guess that he had joined up with us and was planning to take them down. And he gave us a _huge_ advantage, because being the tracker, he heard a lot of stuff that only the Deadly Trio (Marcus, Caius, and Aro) were supposed to know. He knew where they would hide in the event of an attack. He knew who in the Guard had the worst gifts. He knew where the Wives resided, which was essential to our plan.

Our evil genius plan.

I heard a groan from Laura. She wasn't as tense as she had been a moment ago, which meant the venom was beginning to wear off. _About time_. It had been almost two days. We had about three hours left before the sun rose.

Demetri popped out from behind a tree, carrying four bodies. We didn't want Laura to go hunting in any of the surrounding areas because there was a slight chance that people would recognize her. And the Volturi might find our location if a bunch of people randomly died in a supposedly peaceful place.

"I got them from four different cities, all several miles apart. They shouldn't be able to trace that," Demetri said, lying flat on his back in the snow. He was excellent at keeping us hidden. I had no doubt that if the Slugs sent another tracker out to find us they would have difficulty. I had been running from them for fifteen hundred years. I wasn't new at this, and Demetri excelled in all things dealing with lying low.

I could smell the blood from the bodies. Demetri had gotten different ages, ranging from what looked like seventeen to fifty three. I tried not to think about those people's families. That was the only way that I could stand to kill as many people as I did. Just don't think about it. Focus on your thirst.

"Uhhhh," Laura moaned. "It feels like I have been run over by a truck seventy four times and shoved in a black hole for all eternity."

Yup. That described it pretty well.

She rolled over so she was facedown on the snow. Her shirt slid up a little bit, exposing the smooth skin of her back.

Demetri saw me looking and raised his eyebrows. I shrugged, causing him to chuckle.

"What's so funny?" Laura demanded. "This _freaking_ hurts, Vladimir."

"Ah, relax. It's almost over."

"It better be." I heard her grit her teeth as she tensed again, the next wave of pain hitting her. I could hear her heartbeat, though it was faint. It was slowing down. She would be a newborn in a matter of minutes.

"I'm going to go find Fane and Maggie," Demetri announced, sprinting off in the opposite direction. He had ditched the chicken suit when he found the bodies for Laura. I almost missed it. It gave me something to laugh at.

I heard Laura's heart give one last loud _thump_, and then it was silent. She sat up immediately, whipping her head in every direction.

"What smells so good?" she asked, and our eyes met.

Wow. Vampirism was going to treat her _well_. I thought she was beautiful before, and she was, but that was almost nothing compared to now. Her auburn hair fell to her shoulders in graceful curls, framing her pale face perfectly. Her eyes were bloodred, but it somehow accented her beauty. Her lips were a pale pink, full and sensual.

She was gorgeous.

"You look different," she said, smiling to reveal shiny white teeth.

"Yeahyoudotoo," was my genius response. My words were all jumbled together. I couldn't think in complete sentences.

"Boy I am _thirsty_!" she shouted, running around the tiny clearing we were in. "I can move so fast! This is so much fun."

I pointed to the bodies. She was on them quick as a flash. I heard a _shhluurrp_ing sound and she was done with one dead person and moving on to another. The smell of fresh blood was almost overwhelming to me. I held my breath and looked at the sky, trying to drown out the noises of Laura drinking.

I needed blood. Badly.

Thankfully, before I did something I would regret, Fane and Maggie showed up, with Demetri trailing behind them. He looked a little awestruck, which made me very curious as to what Fane's talent was.

There were introductions all around, complete with a tackle hug from Fane and a very jealous exclamation of "THEY LET YOU HAVE _BLOOD_? NOT FAIR!" Maggie was all smiles, congratulating Laura on her transformation.

When everyone had calmed down a bit, Fane stood up and cleared his throat. "I think you guys are going to like this. A lot." He slumped down and his eyes became blurry and unfocused, kind of like if you fell asleep with your eyes open.

"Give it a second," Maggie said. So we did. We gave it a second, and then ten seconds, and then five minutes.

"So…he can fall asleep?" Laura asked.

Maggie shushed her. "It'll get interesting; just wait."

Just when I was about to give up hope, Fane stood up straight, only he wasn't quite himself. His eyes were glowing bright purple and he looked like he was about to punch some children and enjoy it. He reminded me of Caius.

"She screamed your name, you know. It was the last thing she said. A pity, too. She would have been _such_ a prize to have. Not because she was gifted, of course, but I'm sure her beauty could have persuaded anyone to be on our side," Fane sneered, but it wasn't his voice. It was Caius's.

Fane switched facial expressions completely. The color drained out of his face (I didn't know that was possible for vampires) and he got such a look of sadness and suffering on his face that I almost wanted to hug him. Which was weird.

"Liliana knew what could happen to her. She wasn't naïve, nor was she stupid, as you seem to think. She was _perfect_." He began to dry sob. And not quietly, either. They racked his whole body; he fell to his knees, shuddering.

Stefan. That was Stefan talking, not Fane.

I wanted to curl up in a ball and beg him to stop. Hearing Stefan like that brought back very bad memories, ones that I tried my hardest to forget. Fane's gift was cool, no doubt about that, but it was _creepy_. Even more than me. That takes a lot of trying, because I'm pretty darn creepy.

"Fane, stop it," Maggie whispered. I saw Fane have what looked like a miniature spastic attack and the purple glow faded from his eyes. He was back to normal. As he should be.

"We can't stay here any longer," Demetri said. "Caius won't kill Stefan, not when he knows that we're coming for him. But he will try and break his mind, and let me tell you, he _always_ succeeds."

My knees chose that moment to stop working. I grabbed huge handfuls of snow and threw them at the thing closest to me, which happened to be Laura. She narrowed her eyes at me, but didn't say anything. Her fingers intertwined with mine, and that was what did it.

I was pulled out of my self-grief and worrying all at once, just because of her hand in mine. We were the same temperature now, but her skin felt like my own personal flame. I became the version of myself that I needed to be in order to lead this group of misfits to save my best friend. Suddenly, instead of making me sad, hearing Stefan crying just fueled my rage.

He would have been proud of me. So proud, that he may have even said he was as pleased as a pup with two tails, gosh darn it! Stefan never cussed. He always used funny alternate words for curse words, like son of a Jane (we figured Jane was a good enough substitute for the b-word) and great gobs of goose grease. I said he was weird, didn't I?

"Let's go then," Fane said, helping Laura pull me to my feet. Maggie shot me a sympathetic look while Demetri stared straight ahead, already going to his tracker mindset.

I wasn't about to let him lead. I told him to stay behind us and make sure our footprints were concealed, just in case. If he was mad that I put him in the back, then he didn't say anything. But I think he knew how I was feeling. I _had_ to lead these people. We were all here to go get my friend, so it was only right. And I had wanted revenge the longest.

I hoped we would run into more vampires on the way. Maybe those two Egyptians, Benjamin and Tia. Not Amun or Kebi. We spent too many years warring against them during our rule, and Demetri had problems with Amun because that's who changed him. But the element-mover and his mate seemed nice enough. Not to mention how much of an ally Benjamin would make.

Laura tugged my hand, successfully bringing me back to earth. She grinned at me, her expression full of excitement. I half-smiled back. I felt wrong being happy when Stefan was in so much misery.

"We gonna go, or just stand around here smiling at each other?" Demetri said.

This is where Stefan and I would have shouted, "Go, you idiot! We have some Italian Scum butt kicking to do." And we would have said it at the same time. It's more epic that way.

But he wasn't here, so I said it by myself. It sounded strange, like it was missing something. And it was.

**A/N: So Laura is a vampire, and Stefan is being mind-tortured by Caius. After I'm done with Immortal, I'll do a bunch of short stories with all the characters, so I'm pretty excited about that!**

**Review! You know you want to!**


	8. The one with Mack Sparrow & Jack Canary

**A/N: IF YOU ARE CONFUSED BY FANE'S GIFT, THEN READ THIS! If he concentrates, then he can see what people are doing at any given time and imitate them. It's kind of weird, definitely hard to understand. And thanks for all the reviews (:**

_The one with Mack Sparrow and Jack Canary_

We didn't run into Benjamin and Tia like I had hoped, but we did find a couple of nomads. Their names were Joel and Brita, and they were Swedish vampires with a deep respect for Demetri. They heard a rumor that he left the Volturi, so they decided they would seek him out. He told them his story, and they decided immediately that they would accompany us to Italy.

Our group had grown from three members to seven in two and a half days. Nowhere near enough to take down the Slugs (the Volturi, in case you didn't guess), but it was a start. If we could get more people to see how _slimy_ they were then we might just stand a chance.

I had been waiting for this for most of my existence.

While we ran, Demetri gave us the scoop on the Guard. I found out that without their supernatural talents, the Volturi would barely be able to function like a ruling coven should. There was a woman, Corin, who had a gift that made you feel content with your surroundings, and apparently it was very addictive. They usually kept her with the wives because they (the wives) didn't like being cooped up in a tower for all eternity. Corin also kept Chelsea, the vampire who can manipulate relationships, happy with her situation. Chelsea forced the other members of the Guard, including Corin, (and Marcus) from leaving. Those two and Felix and Santiago were our biggest threats. Without Corin, Chelsea might rebel. Without Chelsea, everybody _else_ might rebel. So we may have more people on our side that I had originally thought.

Joel suggested keeping Chelsea alive, just in case she was on our side, but Demetri quickly shot down the idea, saying that it was too big of a risk. We didn't want her to turn ourselves against one another.

So it was decided that after we rescue Stefan, we hide in the mountains for a while (there were so many natural organisms there that would help mask our scent) until we could build up an army big enough to battle those slubberdegullions until they ceased to exist.

Chelsea and Corin would be taken care of first. Demetri and I would get Alec, and I was going to let Stefan kill Caius, because my brother (Caius) really deserved it. And it would make Stefan happy. Maggie wanted Aro, because "he _lies_", and Fane would help her with him. Laura didn't really care who she got, as long as she was allowed to participate. Joel and Brita assured us that Felix was no problem for them, something I didn't doubt since Joel was about nine feet tall. (That is Vladimir language for 6 feet 7 inches).

Renata was our biggest problem. She was virtually indestructible because of her shield. This is when having Jane on our side would have been beneficial because the shield was only effective against physical attacks. I know right. I never thought I would see the day when I said _that_. But the pain that Jane would cause might distract Renata long enough for her shield to dissipate and _boom_, no more pesky bodyguard for us to deal with. I didn't know if her shield was retractable like the mother of the half-breed in Washington's (I believe her name was Bella, but I wasn't really paying attention to names when we were up there. I was too excited about a possible fight) was, or if it was permanent.

I asked Demetri, but told me he didn't know. Renata never told anyone, which was smart for her and bad for us. Stupid smart Italians. Ha. That was an oxymoron. (Get it? _Stupid_ smart Italians? Ah, you don't get it. Never mind).

Laura was still holding my hand, something I found both comforting and exciting. She would squeeze it sometimes and smile at me. It made me feel all fluttery inside, something I haven't felt since before Gabriela died.

Speaking of dead wives, the closer we got to Volterra, the sadder Demetri seemed to get. I knew he was thinking of Valery. The arrival of Joel and Brita had cheered him up for a while, until Brita unknowingly complimented the necklace he was wearing, which was something Valery had given him a few years ago. Then he stopped talking altogether, even when we asked questions about the Guard. He just nodded or shook his head.

Maggie and Fane were whispering and laughing about something they were planning. I didn't catch much of what they were saying, but it had to do with cheering Demetri and I up, because we were making Fane sad with all of our depressedness. Yes, I know _depressedness_ isn't a word, but it should be.

Maggie flipped a bright red ball of fuzz the size of Jupiter over her shoulder; I was astonished that she had managed to keep the thing hidden from us for so long. Laura giggled and whacked the ball to Brita, who smacked it at Joel, who flipped it back to Maggie. Pretty soon we were all playing a game of high-speed volleyball/keep away with, as Fane called him, PoPo the puffball. I don't know where he came up with _that_ one, but it made me laugh, so I was okay with it.

Brita and Joel were something else at our adaption of volleyball. They were a perfect team (much like Stefan and I would be), kicking and bouncing it back and forth and keeping it away from us, all while managing to not hit any trees or trip over any roots in the dense section of forest we were passing though.

I was beginning to like them. After we killed each and every one of the Volturi, they would have a permanent room in our castle.

**OoOOoO**

We were so consumed with our game that we didn't notice we had picked up two more followers, only these were _slightly_ more hostile that Joel and Brita.

Heidi and Renata.

Demetri noticed them first, his muscles stiffening for a fraction of a second. Nobody saw that but me. I dropped back, letting the others go ahead. I yelled for PoPo, who was currently being held by Joel. He obliged, tossing the thing at me so fast it almost became a blur in my vision. Key word there being _almost_.

I ducked at the last second, letting PoPo fly straight behind me. I heard a faint thump and an outraged hiss, which meant the intended target had been hit. I know it didn't harm them an any way, but now they knew they didn't have the element of surprise. Of course, neither did we, but that wasn't something to be upset about. I find the whole element of surprise thing to be cliché.

I heard a shrill scream that belonged to Maggie. I shot Demetri a questioning look. He mouthed, _Santiago_.

Huh. So maybe they _did_ have the element of surprise. Those cheaters.

Renata and Heidi materialized behind me, covered in red fuzz and looking, how do I put this delicately, _not happy_. I'm pretty sure Heidi flipped me the bird. How rude.

"Do you _know_ how long it took me to fix my hair, Vladimir? _Four hours_! This took effort, and your clumsiness messed it up!" Heidi shrieked. I flinched. I hadn't heard her talk in so long, I had almost forgotten how annoying her voice was. It's even worse when you're fighting her, and all she can think of is how she'll never be able to wear this outfit again because us Romanian turds had it out for her and her precious clothing.

Renata patted Heidi's shoulder soothingly. "Don't worry dear, we'll redo your hair after we dispose of them." She had an accent like that Tia Dalma lady off of those pirate movies with the guy named after a bird. Mack Sparrow, Jack Canary, something like that.

We ran into the rest of the group, who had stopped because Santiago was blocking their path. He wasn't all that scary, actually. Joel looked like he could eat him for breakfast, and I think Santiago was becoming aware of that fact, because his eyes kept flitting nervously from Renata to Joel. I bet he wished _he_ were the one with a magical shield.

Me too, Santiago, me too.

"What's the problem, ladies?" Fane asked, addressing Renata and Heidi, who were still talking about hair issues.

"You seem to be hunting one of our prisoners down," Renata said, casually examining her fingernails.

"_Demetriiii_," Heidi whined, sticking her lower lip out in a pout.

She was possibly the ugliest thing I had ever seen. I've never seen an ugly vampire before, but Heidi fit in that category. She was pretty as far as looks go, but she was so whiny it made me want to claw my ears out with a wooden stake.

"Why'd you leave us? You were happy three days ago," she said.

Demetri stared at her. He looked at me, silently asking my permission to kill her. Now let's think about this rationally. If he kills Heidi, then Santiago and Renata will definitely attack us. While we would have no problem taking out Santiago, we would have difficulty with Renata.

I shook my head slightly, making sure Demetri was the only one who saw. I looked at Renata, then back at him. He blinked to tell me that he got the message.

If we could figure out some way to incapacitate Renata, then we would have these guys, no problem. And Aro would be out a bodyguard, which would make the job of killing him a lot easier.

"We can either one kill you now, or you can wait until we get back to Volterra, where you'll be humiliated in front of everyone, and _then_ killed," Santiago said, still gawking at Joel.

Is it wrong that I was offended at that? They send a party out here to kill us and _none_ of the Volturi leaders are here? I thought I meant more to them then that.

"Stefan was asking for you," Renata said, pointing at me. "He keeps muttering your name over and over, after he stopped crying about Liliana."

"Liliana is_ still_ upset about Stefan," Heidi said. "Every time that Aro sends me to visit her, I tell her that he's not coming back for her, that he's forgotten that she exists, but she refuses to believe it. Gabriela does the same thing, only she calls for you," she pointed to me.

_Did she just talk about Liliana and Gabriela in the _PRESENT TENSE? I know I was hallucinating. That couldn't have been real. No. It isn't possible.

I saw Heidi flinch as Renata casually gripped her wrist. There was an unspoken threat there. If Heidi didn't stop talking now, then she wouldn't make it back to Italy alive.

"We buried Valery, Demetri," she said, switching from me to the tracker. She tried sliding her arm up his shirt (the one that was free of Renata's death grip), but he flinched away from her before Maggie could even hiss in anger at her lie. Heidi tilted her head, knowing that she had hit a nerve. "You miss her? You miss her _smile_, Demetri? Do you remember how you two used to sneak off and make out like high schoolers in the broom closet on the fourth floor of our underground palace? Or how she was so jealous of humans and their ability to have children that she was considering making an immortal child of her own?"

I stared at Demetri in shock. An immortal child right in the heart of Volterra? Now _that_ was what I call rebellion. I had a newfound respect for Valery, even though I had never met her.

I nudged Demetri, giving him silent permission to attack. He flashed me a grateful look before lunging at Heidi.

"Off with your head," he muttered and tore her arms and head off before Renata even knew what was happening. She didn't even get a chance to try and protect her friend.

I wonder if the last thought that ran through Heidi's mind was about how she never got to redo her hair.

I heard a high-pitched whistling sound, which meant either a teapot was boiling over or Joel had gone to work on Santiago. I was hoping for the latter, unless the tea happened to be made out of blood.

Fane, Laura, Maggie, Brita, and me lunged at Renata at the same time. She had a smug smile on her face because she knew we wouldn't be able to harm her. It didn't stop us from trying, though.

She wasn't a good fighter at all. I prided myself in my physical abilities because it was something that I've worked on ever since the Volturi took over. There's more to it then just kicking and punching, believe me. But Renata just dodged everything, not even bothering to fight back.

At least that was what I thought she was doing. It turns out she was waiting on us to overestimate ourselves and get close enough to where she could grab us. I thought it would be Laura or Fane that would be taken out first because of their lack of experience.

I was wrong. Maybe I was still dazed over how Heidi had talked about Gabriela as if she were still alive, because I didn't _ever_ mess up in fighting. Ever.

Renata lunged at me and I was on my knees before I even got the chance to fight back. She put me in a very painful headlock and started to pull.

**A/N: Don't you just love cliffhangers?! Teehee I'm sorry. It had to be done (: **

**REVIEW! Pleeeeeaaaseeee. **


	9. The one where Laura saves my life

_The one where Laura saves my life _

Do you remember how I said turning into a vampire was the most pain I had ever experienced? Well that was a lie. It seems that having your head pulled right off of your shoulders trumps the pain from the venom.

Who knew?

I was over three thousand years old, but I had never felt my age before, probably because I had been changed on my twenty-eighth birthday. But as my head began to disconnect from my body, I felt _old_. I wanted to take a nap and sleep forever. I wanted to eat only fried chicken and doughnuts for the rest of my life. The thirst that I had become so accustomed to over the years had gone away completely. Just the thought of blood made me want to puke.

I heard a scream, but I couldn't tell who it belonged to. Everything was fuzzy. _How long does it take to rip my darn head off? God must have sewn me on extra tight or something._

Then the arms around my neck let go. I fell face down, smashing straight into Heidi's body. I heard a frustrated grunt, and then what sounded like a miniature rockslide.

It didn't dawn on me that I was still alive until I heard people talking, felt hands yanking me upright, forcing me to stand. "Unnhh," I protested. I wanted to lie down for the next twelve hours, although I didn't feel old and tired like I had a few seconds ago. I felt as energetic as usual, but that didn't necessarily mean I wanted to move.

"L-Laura?" Fane's voice stuttered. He sounded shocked and a little upset, and I immediately went into paranoid mode. What happened to Laura?

I opened my eyes and counted six faces staring at me. Laura was the one holding me up, but she didn't exactly look like Laura. She had a crazed, hungry look in her eyes, one that was borderline insane.

It was scary.

But even as I watched, the insanity evaporated and Laura turned back into the version of herself that did not make me want to climb up a tree and stay there. She looked concerned for someone. _Who_?

It took me a second before I realized that she was concerned for me. But I wasn't dead. Not even close to being dead.

Then I remembered. "Where's Renata?" I shouted, whipping my head back and forth. Everyone looked at Laura, who would definitely have blushed if she still could.

"You were going to be killed," she said sheepishly, shrugging and pointing to something over to my right.

It was Renata's headless body. I turned my head from the body to Laura several times before I actually made the connection between the two. "You _killed_ her?"

She frowned. "Yeah, I guess I did. Don't ask me how, because I don't know. But one second she was attacking you and the next second _I_ was attacking _her_. It took me a minute to actually be able to touch her skin, like there was something blocking me. But then the shield went away and, well," she gestured to Renata's body.

I looked at Brita, who knew everything there was to know about gifts. She had been lecturing us on how they formed and worked and got stronger ever since she joined the group.

"I've never heard of anything like this before," she said, looking up at Joel, who had his arms wrapped around her like he didn't want to ever let go. It made me smile. I used to hold Gabriela like that.

"It was so wild. Like she broke straight through that shield and _bam_ Renata was gone and you fell down, looking quite dead," he said, and kissed the top of Brita's head.

"So…_what_?" I asked, still way too confused to make sense of any of this. Laura broke through the shield? Was that even possible? It must have been a fluke, right? One of those Mother Nature things? Obviously, God didn't want me to die, and I wasn't complaining on that part, but how did Renata get the bad end of the deal? Not that I wanted her to still be alive, but it was so _confusing_.

"I'll explain this to you in the most simple way I can," Laura answered, taking on a why-did-this-happen-to-me tone. "You were going to die. Renata was going to kill you. I intervened."

"I get _that_ part, but what does this mean? Are you like a shield-destroyer or something, because that would be so cool! There are so many possibilities…" I trailed off; already beginning to form plans in my mind.

Laura rolled her eyes. "You gonna thank me for saving your life?"

Oh. Yeah. I suppose that would be the right thing to do, wouldn't it? I tackled Laura in a hug and we both fell to the ground. She laughed, her bright red eyes looking right at my black ones.

I would have kissed her right then and there and not stopped until absolutely necessary, but we had an audience of several other vampires including Fane, who I'm sure would _not_ be very comfortable watching his little sister kiss a vampire. And I had already almost died once today. I didn't want to make it twice.

**OoOOoO**

Having a near-death experience really adds a new perspective your life. If I were a human, I probably would have realized that I needed to slow down a bit, become more careful.

But I'm not a human. I am a _vampire_. So I decided that I needed to become more daring if at all possible, and I needed to teach our group some moves. They knew a few, but not enough to win a battle. I could teach them my fighting style, and Demetri could teach us the Volturi's style. He was giving us advantages right and left.

I punched Fane on the shoulder. He was supposed to be fighting Maggie, not making _I love you_ eyes at her. He glared at me, and then proceeded to fall flat on his face instead of pinning her arms behind her back like I had told him to do.

_Newborns_.

Brita was the only one of us brave enough to take on Joel, though Demetri said he "might if he felt up to it". I told him to go put his chicken suit back on, because that's what he was. He smacked me upside the head.

I studied our Swedish companions and how they fought. Joel used his massive size as an advantage, something that worked well if your opponent was small (and Brita was), but if he was fighting someone the size of Felix? He would have to totally change both his offensive and defensive moves.

Demetri was like a whirlwind. His arms flew through the air so fast that I doubted he would have any trouble at all except for the fact that everyone on the Guard knew how he fought. He would have to learn some new tricks. And I would be the one to teach him.

I wondered what Stefan would say about all this. I know he would be ecstatic about Renata, Heidi, and Santiago being dead, but would he approve of Demetri? He had proved his loyalty to us by killing Heidi, so I was pretty sure Stefan wouldn't mind him being here. It will be so nice to have my oldest –and best- friend back. I miss the western insults he used all the time, and how he always found something funny in pretty much everything I said. As lazy as it sounds, I missed him continuing my sentences. I didn't like having to talk in complete sentences. I wanted to hold a conversation with him using just my eyes. I could do that with Demetri, but it just wasn't the same.

Why did Caius have to be my brother? Why couldn't it have been Stefan all along? Because he was more of a brother to me –_way_ more- than Caius ever was. Caius hated me from the moment he was born and realized our mother preferred me to him. He took his anger out on everyone. I don't think I've seen him smile once in all the years that he's lived.

Stefan lived his life differently. When he was angry or mad, he usually fought me, but in an I-would-never-hurt-you kind of way. He never killed without reason. He didn't blame me for Liliana's death, something that I was grateful for. I had promised him I would protect her, but she got killed. He had assured me a thousand times over that it wasn't my fault, but I was the type of person who blames myself for _everything_.

Life is rough.

"What about Makenna and Charles? We might be able to get them," Joel was saying to Demetri.

"Makenna is related to Renata," Demetri replied, vetoing that suggestion. I racked my brains, trying to think of all the Volturi-hating vampires I had ever ran into. There was quite a few. I knew those vampire sisters from Denali, Tanya and Kate, would be eager for a chance to take down Caius. The Cullens owed us one from last winter for standing as witnesses, even though that wasn't really a favor for us. We were there because we hated the Volturi, not because we particularly cared about the fate of the half-breed.

There were no original Romanians left other than Stefan and I, otherwise they would be right here beside of me. I already knew that Benjamin and Tia would help; it was just a matter of getting them away from Amun long enough for them to be of any assistance. Those nomads, Mary and Randall, could be useful, but I doubted they would involve themselves in this. They preferred to be left alone.

Maybe we would run into more vampires along the way like we had done with Joel and Brita. That would be wonderful.

We started running again when the sun rose. It would take us twelve more hours to reach Volterra, and it was a full moon, which meant they would not have fed in a couple of weeks. According to Demetri, they have very strict feeding schedules. They would be at their weakest point now, so it was our best chance. We would hunt once we got nearer to their sewer of a castle. Our plan was to strike at night because I found night fighting to be more entertaining than fighting during the day. Don't ask; Gabriela got me started when we first met each other. She was a rebel even then. I suppose today she would have been called an "adrenaline junkie". And she would have been _my_ adrenaline junkie.

I missed her.

I allowed myself to think about what Heidi had accidentally said before Demetri went all Queen of Hearts on her. Get it? He took off her head and the Queen of Hearts' catchphrase is "OFF WITH HER HEAD!" Yeah. It makes sense to me.

She talked about Gabriela in present tense. She didn't say, "Gabriela _used_ to call for me, she said Gabriela _still_ called for me, and the same goes for how they spoke of Liliana. It was not possible. There was no way that they could be…no. I wouldn't allow myself to think the word _alive_, not when it would just get my hopes up.

And what about Laura? I liked her, didn't I? Yes, but what if…? I let my mind explore the possibilities, even though I had just told myself not to.

Would she have forgotten me? What if she found another mate? Did she think I had forgotten about her and left her at the mercy of the Volturi? What if she was mad?

_She's not alive_, the part of me that was still thinking rationally said. I told it to shut up and go die in a hole. _Gabriela, Gabriela. _I needed her in my life. It was so good whenever she was alive, even after the Volturi overthrew us. She made things happy, even when there was nothing to be happy about.

I did something that I will probably regret come this time tomorrow, but you know what? I don't even care. I hadn't looked at it in _so long_ and all these thoughts of Gabriela just made it all too tempting.

I usually kept in in a shirt pocket, but Caius had destroyed my shirt four days ago, and I hadn't bothered putting one on again. _Had it only been four days_? It was in the back pocket of my jeans, just waiting on me to grab it.

Have you ever wondered how the wedding ring tradition got started? I'm sure your history books or whatever you guys read nowadays to learn stuff only told you that it started in Europe, and that was about it. The truth is that _I_ started it. I was going to give Gabriela a necklace the day she was changed, but then this human stole the necklace and it got swallowed (don't ask). So I gave her a ring instead. She loved it so much that she got me a ring a few years later, only this one was given to me on the anniversary of the day we met (yeah, I know, it was sappy. But you should know that _I_ was the one who got laid that night. Not you. So there.). Stefan gave Liliana a ring after that, and the rest of our coven did the same to their mates. The whole thing sort of grew from there, but you get the idea.

I pulled out the ring that she had given me. It was plain silver, but it was perfect. I put it on the third finger of my left hand, ignoring the questioning look Laura sent me.

I said it earlier, and I'm gonna say it now. Life is rough.

**A/N: Songs I listened to while writing this chapter: **_**You're gonna go far, kid **_**and **_**The Kid's aren't Alright **_**by The Offspring, and **_**All I Want**_** by A Day to Remember. REVIEW! I'm begging you!**


	10. The one with a betrayal

**A/N: A huge HUGE thank you to my reviewers. You guys rock! Please keep it up (:**

_The one with a betrayal_

Ah, blood. It has the ability to save human lives, sustain vampires, and make a certain person named Vladimir very happy. So happy, in fact, that I forgot all about my wishful theories of Gabriela and allowed myself to be completely consumed by the hunt. It was fun.

I showed Laura how to drink without making herself completely filthy in the process. She asked me about my ring, and I said it was a reminder and left it at that.

We were very close to Volterra now, which is why we were hunting like there was no tomorrow. Because with our mission, there very well _could_ be no tomorrow. It was a scary thought, but one that we all knew. We were all painfully aware of what might happen to us later tonight, and we had accepted it. The time for being sad about possible death was over.

It was time for the pre-battle storytelling.

I know, I know. It's _so_ cheesy and all that, but it it's a lot of fun and it gets you all pumped and excited for the war. And it gives me a chance to tell everybody about how awful the Slugs are, which is something I _never_ turn down.

We sat down around this huge rock that Joel found. Nobody had volunteered to go first, so I took that as my cue.

"Which one do you guys want? I have twelve trillion and four," I said, looking around at all of them. Fane looked overly excited as usual, though I wasn't sure if it was because we were finally in Italy or because Maggie was sitting in his lap.

"The one when you invaded Italy," Demetri said quietly. He hadn't been alive for that one, but apparently the Volturi talked about it frequently.

Darn right, they did. It was the only time they had been attacked, and whether they won or not, it should make them very paranoid.

I told my story, enjoying how intrigued everyone seemed to be. Brita went after me, and Maggie after her. Maggie's were all about the Irish rebellion, something that everybody found very interesting. She got several encores, much to her delight. After a while we stopped talking. It wasn't because we ran out of stories to tell –not even close- but because vampires aren't real big talkers. We say what needs to be said and that is all. No extra words.

Fane and Maggie disappeared into the woods, saying that they would be back just before the sunset. Brita and Joel followed suit. I let them go, remembering mine and Gabriela's last night together. Laura went down to the city to hunt, saying she was still thirsty. Demetri was sitting on the rock; fiddling with the necklace that Valery had given him.

I sat down beside of him. "Did you see Alec kill her?" I made sure my voice was quiet even though there was no one around to hear us.

He shook his head. "Felix and I were...taking care of something Aro said was "urgent", though what could be more urgent than my mate being killed, I don't know. Then Caius came back dragging Stefan behind him, yelling that Jane was dead. Heidi told me that Alec went straight for Stefan, but Caius stopped him before he could kill him. So he took out his rage on Valery instead."

Something just wasn't right about that story. Alec may be a slimy little worm, but he was a smart worm. He had to have known that killing Valery would provoke Demetri, and without Jane, they needed every member of the Guard to remain intact. I didn't want to get his hopes up, but the question had to be asked.

"Did you ever think that Heidi might have lied?"

His head snapped up and he grabbed me by the shoulders. "Do you know something?" He sounded desperate.

"No, no," I assured him. "It's just that something feels off about the whole thing."

He nodded. "Vladimir?"

"Yeah?"

"The Volturi are smart. They know how to manipulate someone into doing exactly what they want them to do, even without Chelsea controlling their feelings and creating relationships. Do you think they are doing that to me?"

It was a chilling thought, but it was one that had crossed my mind multiple times ever since Demetri joined us. "It's a possibility, but I was going to get Stefan back anyway. I don't see how having you with us has screwed us up at all."

He smiled wryly. "I'm going to go find the others. Laura's coming up the hill." And with that, he flew out of sight.

Laura started to sit in the spot Demetri had vacated, but I shook my head and lifted her up onto my lap. She seemed to know what I was thinking, her red eyes filled with longing. She ran her fingers through my hair as I pulled her close. Her breath tickled my cheeks as our noses touched, and then our lips. I sighed and situated her legs to where she was straddling me.

When I was kissing her, I completely forgot about Gabriela. It was like Laura was a shot of Novocain that made me forget the pain of losing my mate. She was the only one for me. It felt right. Perfect. Why did I need to rescue Stefan anyway? Why couldn't I just go back to Romania and live with Laura for the rest of my life? Stefan could fend for himself; he didn't need me. I was content without him. As long as I had Laura. I felt numb and happy, completely blissful to all the problems, all the stress and worries that were surrounding me.

That was when it hit me. _Corin_. I froze, every muscle in my body going stiff. I felt Laura smile against me.

"He's figured it out," she said, pushing herself off my lap and going to stand beside of Corin. The latter had her eyes closed in concentration, and I could see a faint pink mist surrounding her, making its way past Laura and over to me. I narrowed my eyes at them both and walked up close to Corin and slapped her across the face.

If there's anything I've learned in all my years of life, it is never to slap a female vampire in the face, or any female for that matter. It makes them very mad for some reason. So I can't say that I was surprised when Corin growled at me. Laura was holding her back, whispering something in her ear.

Corin smiled mischievously, causing my paranoia to set in. She turned around, motioning for someone to come and stand beside her. It was the mate of Chelsea the relationship-manipulator, I think his name was Afton, but that wasn't what caught my attention. He was holding something in his arms, obviously a person, and whoever it was had a thick blanket covering them. They were moving a little bit, so they weren't dead.

_Please don't be Stefan. _

I didn't like seeing him all weak like that, not when I knew how strong he really was. They were probably blood-starving him, which won't kill a vampire, but it will make them extremely tired and thirsty.

Afton removed the blanket. It wasn't Stefan. It was someone even better, but so much worse at the same time.

"Gabriela." My voice was a faint whisper as I ran towards her, trying my hardest to not to collapse. I made it until Afton threw her at me. I caught her and fell to the ground. Not because she was heavy (she was definitely not heavy), but because she was _alive_. I actually had her in my arms. My beautiful, perfect Gabriela. She was here, and it was all real. It wasn't a dream because I couldn't sleep. A hallucination, maybe?

"Mir." She said quietly. It _was_ her.

Could I just stare at her forever? Her eyes were coal black, but they were sharp and alert, not filmed over at all.

"Her mind is her own," Corin said. "Aro wouldn't let any of us touch her or Liliana. Or Valery," she added as an afterthought.

_Valery_? As in Demetri's Valery? What kind of sick game were they playing here? Pretending to kill vampires but really keeping them alive?

"You have a choice," said Laura. I glared at her, curving my body over Gabriela. Nobody but me was going to touch her. "You can either one go back to Romania, and we take her back," she pointed to Gabriela, "_and_ we keep Stefan. _Or_ you can come with us and be held hostage."

What kind of choice was that? I felt my arms shaking from rage. _Let _myself be taken by the Volturi? Give myself to them willingly? Of course, there's so many more options for revenge from inside the castle itself…and I would have Stefan with me. Plus I couldn't leave Gabriela, couldn't even make myself look up from her face. She was silent, as I knew she would be. It was my choice to make. Slowly, I got up, refusing to even glance at Laura. _Traitor_.

"Kill the others," she said to Afton, pointing towards the woods. I tried my hardest not to smirk. I knew that I would never see him again, not with Joel on my side. He would protect Brita and Fane and Maggie. I didn't know where Demetri was, but I hoped he was hidden well.

I followed Corin and Laura into the depths of Volterra, carrying Gabriela the whole way. She placed her small hand on my face and I kissed it, tightening my arms around her. I was going to get us out of this somehow.

**OoOOoO**

_Demetri's POV__ third-person_

Demetri saw the whole thing. He had felt Corin's presence, seen the pinkish mist that always surrounded her, when Laura came back. So instead of getting the others like he had promised, he sat, just out of view of the people on the hill. He knew something bad was about to happen.

And it did. Laura had betrayed them, revealing their position to the Volturi when she said she was going to be hunting. Demetri wasn't really surprised at this, but it was still shocking. He had been suspicious of both Laura and Fane as soon as he met them. A couple of newborns so eager to go against the coven that ruled the vampire world? It didn't fit. Vladimir was too blinded by rage to see it, but Demetri did.

He saw Afton coming up the hill with the body in his arms, the one that turned out to be Gabriela. He heard the choice Vladimir was offered, and immediately knew which option would be picked.

Demetri watched as they took Vladimir to the underground entrance to the castle, sending Afton after the rest of the group. Joel would have no trouble with him, so Demetri chose to go where he was needed most. He would follow Vladimir.

Demetri wasn't an idiot. He knew that Aro would be upset with him for leaving the Guard briefly, but he also knew that his gift was valuable. Too valuable and risky to lose. He could hunt down _anyone_, anything that could possibly be hidden, and find it. Aro wouldn't kill him, but he would offer him his position back in the Guard. And Demetri would take it, pretending to be glad to be back. He would be civil to Alec and not show the rage he felt towards the witch twin. (It _was_ a good nickname for him. Demetri had to admit that the Romanians knew their way around name-calling).

He had been controlling his thoughts ever since he joined with Vladimir, just in case Aro got the chance to touch his hand again. All Aro would see was thoughts about how sad he was about Valery and how he was spying on the Romanians for the Volturi.

But he wasn't on the Italians' side. He was on _Vladimir's_ side. Demetri couldn't believe he had ever been eager to help the Scum. It was disgusting to him now, seeing how cruel they were, and he wondered how much of his loyalty was attributed to Chelsea's gift. He had killed so many innocent vampires; so many unnecessary deaths. And they sent Demetri out to find anyone they wanted, because they knew he could. So did that make him the cause of so much destruction? Demetri tried not to think of that. He didn't do well with guilt.

So he started towards the castle. Towards the possibility of a battle, towards imminent death. He didn't really care if he died. Valery was dead, so why should he be forced to keep living? There was no point to it any more. But Vladimir deserved the chance to be free with Gabriela.

Demetri was going to get his friend out of Volterra.

**A/N: Originally, I was planning on Demetri betraying them, but I like him too much. So it is now Laura! **

**Review. Review. Review. Review. Review. I can continue this for a while, so you might as well do it. (:**


	11. The one where I get my friend back

_The one where I get my friend back_

They threw us in a cell big enough for maybe a raccoon to live in, with no windows and enough light to see maybe three feet in front of you, even with vampire vision. But they let Gabriela stay with me, so all of those inconveniences went out the door. The smaller the cell was, the closer she had to be to me. I wasn't complaining one bit.

She couldn't walk. She hadn't had blood in so long that her legs weren't strong enough to bear her weight. It just made me even madder at the Scum, which is what I needed to escape. I seem to form plans better when I'm mad.

"Here." I pulled three mice from my pants pocket. Gabriela stared at me with wide, disbelieving eyes.

"For me? Are you sure?"

"Positive."

She drank the mice in less than two seconds, but I don't know if it helped her or hurt her. Sure, she had some blood in her system now, but did it just make her thirstier?

She was so beautiful that it actually hurt me, a soft pain deep inside of my chest. I found myself gradually moving closer to her, taking her small hands in mine like I had longed to do ever since the last time I saw her. She moved them to my face, brushing her fingers against my lips. I ran my fingers through her straight hair; she let it fall over her face so I could touch more of it. Her hair had always fascinated me for some reason. I could never resist tugging on it, not enough to cause her pain, but enough to make her close her eyes and sigh. And that's exactly what she did, making me want to pull harder. I moved her closer, situating her to where she was on top of me. Her breath warmed my neck. I kissed her jawline, making her gasp and giggle like a schoolgirl.

Her hands were on my stomach now, feeling the muscle. Chill bumps formed wherever she touched me.

"Gabriela," I murmured, my voice rough with desire.

"Mir," she whispered, biting her lip and finally I couldn't take it anymore. I kissed her once, twice, until our lips met for good. I felt her tongue tracing the outline of my mouth and I gladly let her in, enjoying her soft moan of satisfaction.

I hadn't been with her in so long. I needed her, wanted her, had to have her. Our clothes disappeared without much difficulty, considering I was wearing only pants and she was clad in a gown with so many holes that it hardly counted as an article of clothing. Her soft curves met my hard muscle, molding together perfectly, and we _finally_ found each other again after fifteen hundred years of separation.

We talked afterwards. I told her everything; about how I thought she was dead, of Stefan's kidnapping (or vampire-napping, depending on how you looked at it), of Laura and her betrayal. She started laughing after a while, saying that of course Stefan managed to get himself taken by the Volturi. It made me happy being near her, having her perspective on things. Gabriela had always been able to see the bright side of most every situation.

She told me about how the Volturi treated their prisoners. It wasn't nearly as bad as I had expected it to be. Apparently all they did was lock us in a cell and forget about them. It would be easy, almost _too_ easy to escape. But I had to do it now, while I still had blood in my system to keep me strong.

"You will have to leave me behind," Gabriela said, her voice sad and quiet. I felt her body trembling against mine, saw her shaking. "I am not strong enough."

I knew she would say that. She was too smart to let herself even begin to think otherwise. But I couldn't leave her here, not when I had just found her. It would feel like someone was stomping on my heart with metal cleats four thousand times over.

"But I don't wanna," I protested, trying to keep the mood light. I didn't do serious very well. "You have to come with me, I've lived too long without y-"

She cut me off by pressing her lips to mine, locking her legs around my body.

I laughed, pushing on her hips, bringing her as close to me as possible. "You always did know how to shut me up."

"Someone has to do it," she said.

"But nobody does it as well as you," I muttered, already losing myself to her.

**OoOOoO**

I can't say I'm surprised that Demetri found us, and thankfully, he was _not_ in a chicken suit this time. He was, however, in the standard black cloak that all members of the guard wore.

Gabriela went nuts when she saw him, thinking that he was here to take me away from her. She went into major defense-mode, snarling and hissing and shielding my body with hers.

I think Demetri almost died. He probably wasn't expecting to see a very angry _unclothed_ Gabriela in a cell with me. He started backing away, putting his hands up in a gesture of surrender. She raised her eyebrows, turning back to me. "He's good?"

I nodded, throwing her the gown she had been wearing before I ripped it off of her. She glanced at it and frowned. There was a huge tear in it, right down the middle. It was kind of like if you took a dress and put it in a wood chipper. It would have been more effective as a rag. Demetri took off his cloak and offered it to her.

She shrank away from him, clinging to me. I took the cloak and wrapped it around her shoulders.

"Thank you," she whispered. I nodded at Demetri, letting him know that everything was okay and he wasn't going to be attacked by my crazy wife. I pulled on my pants, not even bothering to be embarrassed.

"I saw it all," he said, talking about Laura's betrayal. "Aro said she's been working with Caius since the very beginning. He hasn't been controlling her mind, either. It was purely voluntary."

I stiffened. This time yesterday, I thought I loved Laura. Now, seeing who she really was and having Gabriela by my side, I was disgusted at myself for even thinking she was cute. "So now we rescue Stefan."

"Yes. He's being held on the other side of the castle, near the wives. Aro won't let anyone touch him, not even Corin or Chelsea. Caius has sneaked back there several times, though."

"Yeah, we know that from Fane. Speaking of, where are the others?"

"Joel killed Afton. They're waiting outside. I told them not to come in here because it was too risky. Aro took me back in the Guard, but he's suspicious of me. He thinks I was spying on you for him, but I fed him totally wrong information because I've learned to control my thoughts since I joined up with these…" he grinned at me, "Slubberdegullions."

I fist-bumped him. "Yes! Dude, you _just_ made my day."

"So are we going to stand here talking or get busy rescuing Stefan?" Gabriela asked, linking her hand with mine.

"I thought you said you were too weak."

"Eh," she said, looking up at me with black eyes. I knew what she meant. _I don't want to leave you_.

"I can carry you then," I said, ecstatic to have an excuse to have Gabriela in my arms.

"We have to be quiet. If anyone sees you…" Demetri trailed off, letting the threat hang in the air. I cleared my throat and picked Gabriela up bridal-style. She threw her hair over my shoulder, knowing that it would make me shiver, and not from the annoying drafts in this castle.

The things that woman does to me.

**OoOOoO**

Demetri and Gabriela hit it off excellently, he even told her this really funny story about how him and Valery met, something about giant teddy bears and bad airport security. He was in a good mood for the first time since I had actually gotten to know him. It just proved my point that life is better with Gabriela around. She makes everyone happy.

The closer we got to the wives' tower the more excited I got. It felt like a little hamster was running around inside of my chest. It made me realize (once again) how much I missed my best friend. And how much I really needed to kick some Italian Scum booty. I almost hoped we would meet one of them along the way, preferably Alec. Even though he didn't kill Gabriela, he was one of the witch twins and he killed _so_ many of my friends. He needed to die.

And I would be the one to kill him.

"Mir?" Gabriela asked, her lips brushing my earlobe.

It's amazing how that one syllable can make me feel all hot and cold and shaky on the inside.

"I love you."

"I love you too. More than anything," I said, repeating the last words she said to me a millennium and a half ago before we invaded Italy and she was captured. She caught what I said and smiled sadly.

We reached a set of absolutely _huge_ double doors, with this weird pulley system hooked up to the outside. I tried pushing, pulling, kicking, and punching, but they wouldn't open a centimeter. Darn Volturi and their strange door locks.

Demetri watched me with an amused expression on his face. He walked right up to the doors and yelled, in a very harsh, menacing voice, "STEFAN! It is Demetri, of the Guard!"

The doors opened immediately. I glared at him for a few seconds, but then I saw Stefan and forgot all about Demetri. I was by his side in an instant, setting down Gabriela as gently as I could. He looked terrified, astonished, and extremely happy all at the same time. It was almost funny in a weird way.

"He's a member of the _Guard_-" he began, pointing to Demetri.

"He's with us," I explained.

"Caius said he killed you."

"He _wishes_ he was that hardcore."

We continued on like this for a while, no greetings of any kind, but conversations of what had happened in his absence, how we had depleted the Volturi guard by six members (including Demetri), until Stefan noticed Gabriela sitting beside me and smiling at him.

His eyes almost popped out of his head. He pointed from her to me. "Not the hallucinations again. NO. I can't do it, Vladimir; she's not real. _She's not real_," he muttered, hugging his knees and rocking back and forth. What had Caius done to him?

Gabriela reached out and touched Stefan's hand. "Stefan," she said, her voice soothing and gentle, "I am real. They didn't kill me and I don't know why. But I am here, I am alive, and you are not hallucinating."

She's the best, isn't she?

He looked at her, the insane look going away from his eyes. "It's really you?"

"Yes."

He tackled her in a hug like he used to, tickling her until she begged for mercy. I always said that they acted like brother and sister, constantly annoying each other.

"Girl, I thought you were deader than a can of corned beef!" he said, smiling crazily.

Gabriela looked at me with a "has he gone _completely_ nuts" look on her face. I laughed and explained how Stefan was obsessed with the Old West. And then I had to explain _my_ obsession with rhymes, because I busted out laughing when I realized that west and obsessed rhymed. She just rolled her eyes, but I could see the smile she was trying to hide.

"Vladimir!" Demetri said in a harsh whisper. Oh crap. That was his warning voice.

"Well I hate to break up _this_ charming reunion," a voice said, the hate in his tone making the words sound evil.

Felix, the strongest vampire in the world. Lucky us.

**Don't you just LOVE cliffhangers? Review! You know you want to. And a huge thank you to all my reviewers! I love you guys, each and every one of you.**


	12. The one where we escape

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews! You guys are awesome! Don't be alarmed if I don't update for a few days in the next week because I'm going to DISNEY WORLD! Woohoo!**

_The one where we escape_

"Hello, friend," Felix said, glaring at Demetri. "Or is it enemy? I'm a little confused, to tell you the truth."

"It's suicide to fight him. He's too strong," Demetri said out of the side of his mouth, keeping his voice quiet enough to where only I could hear it. "We can't do this without Joel."

Where are strong Swedish vampires when you need them?

"I would come quietly if I were you," suggested Felix. "It's just easier that way. Not that I'm against fighting but…" he flexed his huge muscles, knowing that it would intimidate us, knowing that we would agree with him.

"Are they using you to scare people into agreeing with you now that Jane is dead?" Demetri asked, shooting me a look. _What was he trying to tell me_?

Felix flared his nostrils at us and snarled.

"You're second best, Felix. You aren't the strongest anymore. I've met someone bigger, more powerful than you. You're going to be _replaced_ when Aro finds out he exists, and he'll kill you, just like he did with the tracker before me." He looked at me again, this time tilting his head towards the door, almost imperceptibly.

Oh. I understood now. Demetri was distracting Felix, giving us a chance to escape. I made eye contact with Stefan and he understood immediately, scooping up Gabriela in his arms and edging towards the door. I looked at my wife and best friend one last time before they were gone, flying through the corridors so fast that I knew Felix wouldn't be able to catch them. Not with the head start they had. Stefan knew who Maggie was, so I wasn't worried about him not finding the others.

I just didn't want to lose them.

I moved to stand beside Demetri, nudging him to let him know that I wasn't here, that I wasn't going to leave him to die. He smiled gratefully at me.

Felix looked mad. "There's _no one_ out there that is stronger than me. Aro said so. I am the best. The _best_, Demetri, do you hear me? Nobody has beat me, not ever in my entire existence."

This guy had arrogance issues.

"Oh, but there is. He's taller, stronger, faster, _better_ than you," Demetri whispered, a hint of an evil grin coming onto his face.

"It's true," I put in. "He could _beat_ you, kill you, take your place in the Guard."

Felix took deep breaths and I could almost see the wheels in his brain turning, trying to think of how to prove to us that he was better than Joel. Suddenly I was glad that I was one of the "normal" vampires, the ones that didn't have a supernatural talent. Especially when there are people out there like Aro, who want the best and only the best, and if there were someone out there better than you, they would replace you without a second thought.

He didn't notice that Stefan and Gabriela were gone until a few minutes later, and that was when he charged at us. Demetri and I split, running in opposite directions and meeting up again on the opposite side of the room. Felix turned a complete circle, his eyes almost rolling backwards in his head.

Could vampires be knocked unconscious?

"Confuse him!" Demetri said. "He's so big that he can't move very fast, and he's always had problems fighting more than one target."

So Felix isn't as tough as he seems. No wonder he has doubts about his position in the Guard.

Demetri and I worked well together. Not as well as Stefan and I, of course, no other vampire could even begin to _touch_ that, but we were pretty good. Every time Felix got close to one of us, the other would come crashing into him and then dart away before he got the chance to touch us. It was fun. That is, until Felix finally caught Demetri and tore his arm off.

The thing that many people don't know about vampires is that even when you tear off one of our limbs, it doesn't do much damage until you burn it. The arm (or whatever appendage) will just crawl around on its own until it attaches itself back to the body it belongs to. Not saying that it doesn't hurt, because it does. Kind of like if Jane's power was concentrated on one part of your body.

So Demetri went down, clutching his stump of a shoulder and screaming at the top of his lungs. Felix started to move in on him, but I jumped on his back, which distracted him pretty well.

"What are you DOING you IDIOT?" he shouted at me, trying to throw me off by dancing around like a crazy person. "GET _OFF_!"

"What, so you can kill Demetri? I don't think so," I muttered, tightening my hold on him. He grunted and flexed his muscles, using his brute strength against my size. "Any time now, man!"

"_Sorry_, I'm kind of missing an _arm_ over here," Demetri yelled back.

"Well reattach it!"

"That's what I'm trying to do."

"Do it _faster_."

I was losing my hold on Felix and he knew it. I could see his smug smile out of the corner of my eye and I knew that once he shook me off, he would kill me. And then he would go for Demetri and his work would be finished until he realized that Stefan and Gabriela had escaped. Then he would get even madder and try to track them, only he didn't have that ability. So either way Felix was screwed. Ha!

"_Demetri_," I said, making my voice as urgent as possible.

"I gotcha," he said, and then the arms that I had been straining against before weren't there anymore and Felix was on the ground, screaming in pain. Demetri reached for his head, and I thought he was going to do it, thought he would kill him.

But he hesitated. "I can't. H-he is –_was_- my friend. Friends don't murder each other."

Curse him. Why did he have to be such a good person?

"However, they do leave them alone with no arms and escape from this dungeon and hope that they get in a great deal of trouble with Caius, Marcus, and Aro. It's almost a shame that Jane isn't here. Oh well. I'm sure they'll take _great_ care of you, Felix."

And with that, Demetri ran out the door with me on his heels. We had to get out of here before Felix became whole again and was ready for some serious payback.

**OoOOoO**

As we ran through the corridors, with Demetri checking his half-attached arm every ten seconds, I debated on whether or not I should tell him about what Corin said. About Valery being alive and held somewhere here in Volterra. I doubted she was here, in the castle, because keeping all your prisoners in one place just is not a good idea, especially when they're all vampires. It makes escape attempts and rebellions almost inevitable.

I thought about how I felt when I saw Gabriela when I had been told again and again that she was dead, how relieved, how it felt like someone had taken the weight of the world off my shoulders. I thought about how Demetri had just risked his life for me, for Stefan and Gabriela, people he had been trained to hate ever since he joined the Volturi. How he came to help me rescue Stefan even though that meant turning against his friends.

He deserved to know.

"Demetri," I began. He turned his head so he could see me and where he was running at the same time. "Valery is, well…she's…alive."

Demetri stopped dead. He stared straight ahead, like he was seeing someone that wasn't there. "She's _not_ dead?" His voice sounded hollow.

"Corin told me just before they took me. After they took the blanket off of Gabriela, she said that her mind hadn't been touched by any of the Volturi and neither had Liliana or Valery's. I understand if you want to join back with them now that you know." I smiled reluctantly. "You don't have to be on my side anymore."

Demetri walked right up to me, stopped three feet away, and slapped me in the face.

"Are you stupid? Do you _actually_ think I would go _back_ to them? I was going to leave them anyway, before they killed Valery. Or didn't kill her. Whatever."

I laughed and he joined in. "Good to know. So are you ready to join the rest of the group and do some hardcore wife hunting? Because Stefan will search for Liliana until he finds her or he'll die trying."

We started running again and I followed him as he led me to the exit from the underground tunnel. Demetri couldn't stop smiling, and I found myself almost giddy with excitement because I had Stefan back. And Gabriela. My family was together again, not a hundred percent whole, but we were all here, all alive. It was all I could ask for.

**OoOOoO**

Joel and Brita were waiting outside with Fane and Maggie, looking so worried that they could have been actors on a soap opera. Huh. I had just found my long lost wife, escaped from my bitterest enemies castle, rescued my kidnapped best friend, been betrayed by a girl I liked, and made friends with the most unlikely person ever (Demetri). My life seemed pretty soap operaish at the moment.

I went straight for Fane, fully intending on threatening him until he told us the truth about why he was here, if he too was with the Italians, but Maggie stopped me before I could.

"I've already asked. He's with us," she said softly, pushing me away from him.

My lips twitched. "I believe you. Where are Stefan and Gabriela?"

"He took her hunting. She said she wanted to surprise you. Something about her being the strong one?" Brita said, grinning coyly at me.

I rolled my eyes. "Not with that again. She beat me one time. _One time_ and she hasn't dropped it since then."

"What did she beat you in?" Joel asked.

I stared at the ground, extremely glad that vampires couldn't blush, because I would be doing that right about now. "We had a wrestling match."

"They had wrestling two thousand years ago?" asked Fane, who was having a thumb-war with Maggie.

"Yep. And that's it, end of story," I said, instantly regretting the words as soon as I said them, because I knew they would just become more curious about it. Especially because that was not, in fact, the end of the story. Not even close.

"Spill it, Vladimir," Demetri said, trying not to laugh at my facial expression.

"No, I think this is better left unsaid."

He put me in a headlock. "Tell us."

"No."

Joel came over, grabbing both my arms and pinning them behind my back.

"_Tell_ us."

"Fine," I grumbled, and they released me, sitting down and blinking expectantly. "You two are unbelievable."

"You better bet we are," they said at the same time. Then we all started laughing and couldn't stop for a long time.

"We may or may not have been, uh, _clothed_ at the time that this match was held."

The laughter returned, and it only got worse when Gabriela and Stefan came back. They joined in, even though they didn't know what was funny. Gabriela sat down on my lap, intertwining her fingers with mine and resting her head on my chest.

One rescue mission down. But now we had a war to fight, and maybe I should be dreading this, but I'm not. I'm excited. I

**A/N: I was going to make something else bad happen, but then I thought, nah, might as well give them a break. Hoped you liked it! I wanted to show how Vladimir and Demetri's friendship was growing, because I really like Demetri and…yeah that's about it. **

**Review! Review review! Or else I will send Joel after all of you, and he's like a giant, so I would just stay on the safe side and review. **


	13. The one where I am bitten

_The one where I am bitten_

I told Stefan about Liliana, away from everybody else so he could have some privacy because I knew he would need it. He loved her so much; it nearly destroyed him when she died. Finding out that she wasn't dead and he had missed seeing her, talking to her, for nearly two thousand years? Yeah. He may get a _little_ upset. Just a tiny bit. Not enough to break a tree or anything, but enough to smash a car.

It was such a nice car, too. A bright blue Ferrari, sitting just outside of Volterra. Now the windshield was all cracked and there was a large dent in the side, shaped suspiciously like Stefan. I found the whole thing to be rather funny, actually, but the owners of the car did not. I couldn't image why.

Demetri told us all about his wacko tracking gift. If he had come into physical contact with someone or touched anyone who had met the person he was tracking, then he could find them anywhere by following the essence of their _mind_. I told him he was like a professional stalker. He didn't find that as funny as I did for some reason.

We told Joel all about Felix and how insecure he was with his abilities. Joel just grinned and hopped around like a bunny, eager to meet his match in battle. He reminded me of myself during the witness standoff at the Cullens place last year. Only that time, we did not get to fight. This time, a fight was almost inevitable. I couldn't wait.

I was dreading the moment when we would have to choose which wife to search for first. Liliana, who had been trapped the longest, or Valery, the mate of our very valuable tracker. But, as it turns out, nobody had to choose. Demetri had already picked up Liliana's scent and once he got started on something, he couldn't stop. He had to hunt her down or he would go insane because he couldn't find her. It was just how his mind worked, how he was wired.

After we had set off, with Demetri in the lead, Fane had asked a very good question, one that had been weighing on my mind for quite a while now.

"No offense to you, Gabriela, but why didn't they just kill you when they had the chance? Why keep you? Why keep Liliana? Why say they killed Valery when really they didn't?"

Brita was the one who answered, her voice quiet and knowledgeable. "Manipulation. What is the one thing that a vampire will go to all ends of the world to keep safe, the one person they will do anything for?"

"A mate," Stefan answered. I looked at Gabriela. She was so much stronger now, her eyes a rich burgundy color instead of the dark black they were when I saw her for the first time.

We were heading north, towards Sweden. I could tell that Joel and Brita were in familiar territory, laughing and smiling about the time that they lived _there_, by that tree, or the time that Brita was so thirsty she drank a squirrel.

Demetri stopped us on the edge of a city, Stockholm, I think it was called. He looked worried, but I could tell he didn't want to tell us what he was so scared of. It's a dude thing. We aren't scared of _anything_, we are macho, and we can kick anyone's but. End of story.

"Vladimir, Gabriela, Stefan," he said, motioning for us to come ahead with him. "We're going to go to the city for a bit. You guys make sure Fane doesn't eat any people."

They gave us strange looks, but didn't say anything. After seeing the Volturi and how messed up they were with all their trust issues and whatnot, I realized how strong we were compared to them. We were like a coven of our own. The Awesome Coven.

We walked through the busy city, darting into coffee shops or office buildings every time the sun shone through the clouds. I saw a few guys checking Gabriela out, and, just to show them she was mine, I kissed her right in the middle of the street. In the old Romania, that would have been considered very rude. Now it was considered an act of possession. Oh, how the times have changed.

When we were far enough from the woods for Demetri to be satisfied, he told us what he was so worried about.

"What do you know about werewolves?"

Stefan and I gasped at the same time, looked at each other and chuckled for exactly two seconds, and then launched into this huge story, both of us interrupting each other to tell our favorite parts.

I started. "They _hate_ Caius. He was almost killed by one like-"

Stefan broke in, "a bajillion years ago. He hunted them down after that-"

"Because my brother has some serious anger issues, which I did not inherit, by the way."

"Yes, because you are _so _ready to forgive the Volturi."

I punched his shoulder. "Like you are? But anyway, after this werewolf slaughtering went on for a couple hundred years-"

"We decided to intervene. We sided with the wolves, of course, but _man_ Caius knows how to fight those things!"

"We used to be pretty good friends with them," I said, "but that was a century ago. They aren't immortal. I don't even know if there are any left."

Demetri's mouth was hanging open as he looked from Stefan, to me, then back to Stefan. I wanted to laugh at his look of combined amusement and confusion.

"Do they always to this?" he asked Gabriela.

She nodded. "They have for as long as I can remember. I don't know, it's like they share the same brain or something."

I high-fived Stefan. _Yeah_, we shared a brain. Duh.

"Why do you need to know?" Gabriela asked, always the one to keep the conversation on track. Stefan and I tended to get distracted sometimes.

He pointed to a tower, oddly out of fashion amongst the newness of the city around us. It was made of stone, with ivy growing up the sides. Kind of like Rapunzel's tower in that Disney movie, _Tangled_. And _no_, I did not watch that movie. I just…heard about it from someone. Yeah. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

"Liliana's up there."

It took all three of us to hold Stefan back, because once Demetri said that, he was up and about to run. But we managed to stop him, saying that there was more to the story and the Volturi wouldn't leave her alone unguarded. They couldn't be _that_ dumb, could they?

They unfortunately weren't. According to Demetri, the tower was chock full of people just waiting to kill the first person that set foot in the foyer. I don't think Stefan even heard that part. He sort of tuned out after we told him we needed to strategize before attacking.

"The place is guarded by werewolves. There's a whole pack in there, trying to break through the door that's got Liliana trapped. It's made of silver, which is the only metal that can kill them. They're not able to get through and it's frustrating them."

I stared at him. "How do you _know_ that? It's like you're reading their minds or something. It's freaky. Cool, but freaky."

He just shrugged. "I don't know, it's a tracking thing, I guess. I've always been able to."

"Can we just barge in there, smash the door, and run for it?" Stefan asked.

Demetri shook his head. "Not unless you want them to kill her. They hate her; hate all vampires because they think we all hate them. We're their natural enemies. If they bite you, even when they're not in wolf form, it will kill you. It's the only way to kill a vampire besides the limb-tearing-burning method."

Stefan and I looked at each other. Would they remember the two epic (and quite handsome) vampires that once helped them fight against Caius? It was possible.

In the end it was decided that Gabriela and I would go up to the tower, Stefan right behind us, and attempt to talk to the werewolves. Demetri would have to stay as far away as possible because he used to be a member of the Volturi Guard and he didn't figure they would take too kindly to that. Joel and Brita would wait outside, while Maggie and Fane would stay in the forest in case a fight broke out and we had to take it somewhere where the humans couldn't see us. But if all went well, the werewolves would be distracted long enough for Stefan to break Liliana out. And then we would make a wild run for it.

There was a new moon out tonight, which meant the wolves were at their weakest point now. They couldn't transform.

"Just make sure to be careful," Maggie was saying to Gabriela. They had become fast friends with their shared dislike of untruthfulness.

"I will," she promised.

**OoOOoO**

It's amazing how species differ. Vampires are cold, pale, frozen. Werewolves are overly hot, warmer than the shifters in Washington, they grow unusually fast, their condition only allowing them thirty or so years of life, and they are a monster for only a few days each month. Vampires are monsters all the time.

Our confrontation with them didn't exactly go well, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been, either. They were just concerned with the fact that they smelled Italian food on us, which of course meant that we were members of the Volturi. After we assured them that we were probably the farthest things from that, they warmed up to us pretty quickly.

We asked them about the strange door at the top of the tower and they all groaned in annoyance.

"It _won't_ open."

"There's a vampire in there! We have to kill it." (Stefan almost attacked the guy who said that).

"I wonder if it's a chick or a dude," one said, and the alcohol on his breath was so strong it made me want to wash his mouth out with soap. I think he threw up sometime after that.

Stefan remained quiet, saying as few words as possible. The werewolves began to ignore him after a while, only focusing on Gabriela and me. I saw him tense out of the corner of my eye, and then run up the stairs extremely fast and quiet just like Demetri had told him to.

I tried to keep talking, really, I did. But I was listening to see if he could get the door open, and sometimes I just forget to say something when I really need to. They thought I was ignoring them, and then they realized that Stefan wasn't here anymore. They went nuts; blaming each other for killing him for a good five minutes before they figured out that he was still alive.

It didn't help that at that time the door broke open and I heard Liliana's gasp of surprise, and then a crash. I assumed Stefan had picked her up or something. I could hear them talking, only they weren't saying anything but each other's names, over and over.

The pack started up the stairs. I blocked them, saying that Stefan was just practicing a puppet show. And those idiots believed it. I mean, one second they were about ready to attack a vampire they had been waiting for all their lives to kill and the next second they wanted to see a puppet show.

I thought we were safe. I thought that I had gotten their minds off of the door. But of course, I was wrong.

One of them separated me from Gabriela, pushing me through a swinging door and into a kitchen I hadn't seen before.

"What's your friend doing up there with our vampire?" he asked, curling his lips back to reveal sharp, horribly yellow teeth.

I tried to talk to him, tried to tell him the story, or at least part of it. I really wasn't keen on leaving Gabriela alone with a bunch of dogs for more than five minutes.

He did the natural thing. He bit me.

**A/N: Sorry about all these cliffhangers! I'm a bad person, I know. Blah. But I love you guys and please keep reviewing! It makes me happy.**


	14. The one where I am an evil genius again!

**A/N: I hit thirty reviews! Yeeeeahhhhhhh!**

_The one where I am an evil genius…again!_

It's interesting that, in all my years of life, I had never given any thought as to how I would die. I had imagined killing everybody in the Volturi countless times, over and over in my head, but I always survived in those stories. And I can certainly tell you that, had I died in those imaginary fights, it would have been epic and awesome and completely heartbreaking.

But dying because a werewolf _bit_ me? No. That wasn't dramatic enough. People aren't supposed to say, oh, I remember Vladimir, he died cause a wolf bit him. And the wolf was in human form. They're supposed to say, yeah, he died fighting…some vampire that was really strong and it was…sad. Yep. I'll work more on that one later.

I felt myself collapse, every single one of my muscles cramping; something I hadn't felt since I was human. It was strange and all too painful. The venom was slowly making its way through my veins, getting closer to my heart every second I was lying on the ground in agony.

Then I was lifted suddenly and I felt myself being carried out of the tower at vampire speed. The arms I was being held in were soft and familiar, but it took me a minute to identify who they belonged to. Gabriela, my faithful mate. I couldn't believe I had actually dragged her into that danger-fest when I had gotten her back only a few days ago.

Did I just say danger-fest? What was this venom doing to me? I wasn't afraid of danger, heck; I'd spent most of my life waiting for danger to start a fight with me. It was boring otherwise, too peaceful.

I was set down on some ferns. We were somewhere in the forest, where Demetri said he'd be waiting on us. I could faintly smell him, so I knew he was near us. He'd show up in a minute or two, once he smelled our mind or however his bizarre gift worked.

"Where were you bitten?" Gabriela asked, her hands gently probing my skin as she leaned over me. Her hair fell down all around her face, the scent of it making me forget the pain for a moment.

I pulled off the shirt Demetri had made me wear when we went into Stockholm. The bite was just below my collarbone, and it looked disturbingly like a vampire bite. Perfect teeth marks curved around in a mini-crescent shape, oozing a clear liquid that seemed to be glowing faintly.

Werewolf venom.

"Mir, what did you get yourself into?" she asked, trying for a brave smile.

I tried to shrug, but found my shoulder was frozen in place, refusing to move. It was like I was literally turning into stone. Not a very pleasant feeling.

"You're an idiot," she concluded. "Now how are we supposed to get this out of you?"

"I guess the same way you get vampire venom out of someone."

"No you can't do it like that," Demetri said, coming out from behind a tree. "I have to agree with Gabriela on this one, Vladimir. You are an idiot."

I grinned. "He seemed nice enough. How was I supposed to know he would bite me?"

"Did you not hear me when I said to not let them get you alone because they will bite you?"

I frowned at him. "Must've missed that one."

He rolled his eyes and sat down beside Gabriela, examining my wound with concern. "It's poisonous to us. We shouldn't touch it with our skin but if we had something else…" he trailed off. I could see his mind racing, thinking of every possible solution to this problem.

"How long do we have?" Gabriela asked quietly, tracing my jawline with her feathery touch. It calmed me instantly, all worries immediately evaporating from my mind.

Demetri raised his eyebrows. "Not long."

"Demetri?" I asked. He looked down at me. "What happens when it gets to my heart? It isn't like that's what's keeping me alive; it hasn't beat in…well, forever."

"All the vampire venom you have in you rests in your heart, making its way to your mouth only when you smell blood. Once the werewolf venom touches the vampire venom, your heart will explode."

Well. That was interesting.

"So lets find a way to prevent me from exploding, yes?"

They nodded and Demetri ran off, muttering something about hospitals and steel needles. He came back maybe thirty seconds later, carrying these freakishly huge syringes that looked like they belonged in a horror movie. They reminded me of the one that had been used to turn Bella Cullen. Gabriela would stick the needle into my skin and pull on the plunger, and the syringe would fill up with that weird clear glowy liquid. Then the syringe would melt because the stuff was nearly as hot as lava.

It felt like someone was lighting my insides on fire, putting it out, and then lighting it again, only the second time it was twice as hot. It was worse than turning into a vampire. It was worse than Jane.

And that was saying something.

I'm sure I screamed. But I was too out of it to notice anything except the pain and how everything seemed to be tinged with red. The only thing I was really aware of was Gabriela's hand resting on my forehead, unmoving, even as she helped Demetri.

I registered the arrival of Stefan and Liliana, who was practically glowing with excitement. Stefan took Demetri's place so he could go find Fane and Maggie and I felt better with them around me- my family from thousands of years ago, finally together again.

**OoOOoO**

"Vladimir," Stefan's voice was a whisper. I felt cold and I couldn't stop shaking, but I was officially werewolf-venom free and my heart didn't even come close to exploding! _Yes_.

"What?" I croaked, my voice sounding dead and tired. His lips twitched, and I saw him fighting back a smile.

"I haven't seen you in this much pain since you were turned. Do you remember that?"

I couldn't help myself. I started cracking up, and once I got started, it was hard to stop. Stefan was laughing with me, one arm around Liliana. I felt Gabriela behind me, and saw the stiff outlines of our other vampires in this strange almost-coven of ours.

I was changed on a very strange day.

~~ "STEFAN! YOU IDIOT! YOU _LOST_ THE CHEESE," I shouted, swatting my best friend across the head. I had a _bit_ of an obsession with cheese.

What can I say? Cheese is like milk you can chew. **(A/N: Again, that was for you Michaela, only this time Vladimir pulled a Chandler!) **

But of course, as soon as I finally managed to get it, Stefan _lost_ it.

"It was sitting in my bag, and then it wasn't there anymore! I don't know what happened to it. I'm sorry." He had been saying that over and over for the past ten minutes.

"How do you lose cheese?"

"I didn't lose it! It was…stolen! That's the only explanation," he defended himself.

I rolled my eyes. "Who would steal cheese?"

He pointed at me. "You would."

"Ahhh. I didn't steal the cheese, I traded for it it."

He frowned. "I thought you stole it. I don't know where it went!"

"Gah. You are an impossible friend." I stalked off, ignoring his apologies. He knew I wasn't actually mad. Fake fighting with him was just fun, although I really did want to know what had happened to my cheese. I wanted it. Now.

Despite my accusations against Stefan, we both had our suspicions on who had taken it. See, there was this _weird_ guy named Traian who lived on the outskirts of Dacia (our village), and he stole lots of stuff from people. But that isn't the weird part. Whoever he takes something from usually disappears and is never seen again.

So you understand when I say that I _really_ hoped Stefan had eaten my cheese and Traian hadn't stolen it. Cause that would be bad.

It seems that my luck just wasn't in a good mood that day, because when I got home, there was no furniture in my tiny one-room hut. Not that there was anything in there but a straw bed, but still.

Seriously, though. Who takes a straw bed? There's no value in it. But that was Traian's signature. He always took something from your home, no matter if it was a fork or your grandmother's vase. That was how you knew it was him who had taken it.

I decided that I would go see Traian, even though the guy was terrifying and I had a bad feeling about the whole thing. But I couldn't see him just yet, not unless I saw _her_ first.

Her name was Gabriela and she was possibly the prettiest girl in the entire world. It made sense for her to kiss me if I might never come back to Dacia, right? Because Traian apparently ate every person who visited his house.

It only occurred to me later how accurate I really was.

I stood outside of her little house and knocked on the door, really hoping that she answered it and not her freakishly large brother, Valentin. The dude was like seven feet tall and was really quite scary, but don't tell Stefan that. He wouldn't stop teasing me.

"I really hope it isn't you, Valentin. I haven't forgiven you for blowing up in Vladimir's face the other day. I think he's scared of you." an angry voice came from inside. The door opened, revealing Gabriela with her fists clenched like she was ready for a fight.

"Hi," I said, staring at the ground to cover my blush.

Her face was almost as red as mine, but she actually looked pretty when she blushed. I looked like an overgrown tomato. "Hi."

"Traian stole my cheese. And my bed. So I came to say bye before I disappear forever," I explained in a rush. I checked her face for her reaction, and I was rewarded. She was frowning, her cute little mouth turned down at the corners.

"Why do you have to go up there for _cheese_?"

I laughed and she joined in. "Because it is _my_ cheese. And he doesn't scare me too much. Your brother is worse."

She grimaced. "I knew he scared you. Well, I expect you to be back tomorrow morning, whether he kidnaps you or not."

I grinned at her. She held her arms out for a hug, which very nearly made me faint in excitement. I could feel her shaking against me. Her long hair tickled my wrists and she smelled like honey.

"I gotta go before Stefan sees me. If he asks, I'm following the cheese's trail. Don't tell him I went to Traian's, because I know he will follow me."

"You know nobody ever comes back from a visit with him, right?" she asked, her brown eyes searching mine.

I shrugged, trying to cover up the fact that I was kind of nervous about this. Did I really have to get my cheese back? I could make a new bed. It wasn't like I would die without any of that. But that little insistent voice in the back of my head was repeating, over and over, _you know you have to do it_. So I assured Gabriela that I would be fine. I would be the first person to come back.

She narrowed her eyes at me, but hugged me again. I started trudging through the woods to the little shack at the edge of Dacia, the place where Traian lived. **(A/N: Yes, that is the same shack that Vladimir and Stefan are in at the beginning of this story)**.

Traian is creepy. He's really white, like he has no blood in his body at all. He never seems to age at all; he looks to be about twenty, but I've known him my whole life. And I just turned twenty-eight today. I always get this weird sense of dread around him, like I shouldn't be near him. Like my life depends on it.

"I've been waiting on you, Vladimir." Traian's soft, musical voice came out of nowhere. "I'd let you be the leader, you know, even though I'm the oldest. And you could turn that buddy of yours, what's his name, Stefan? You could give him _immortality_," I couldn't tell where he was, even though it was the middle of the day and I should've been able to see him. It was like he was running around me in very fast circles, so fast that my eyes would have missed him completely. But that was impossible, right?

"You are insane," I whispered, knowing he could hear me. His senses were really good. Unnaturally so.

"Oh, but I'm not. You know what I am. You've always known, even though I try to keep it secret. That's why I have to turn you, because people will believe _you_. They won't try and burn _you_ and call _you_ a witch. They like _you_. Not me."

I did know what he was, even though I spent a lot of time trying to convince myself he was lying. Train couldn't be a _vampire_, could he? They didn't exist. They were fairytales told to children before bedtime.

"You'll forgive me for this. I promise you will," he said, and I heard a rustling sound and felt the wind as he ran by me. A searing pain tore its way across my chest and neck as blood poured out of the places he had bitten me.

I screamed. Traian didn't respond, and I knew he was gone. _Stupid vampire_. It didn't really register in my brain that I was becoming what he was, a monster, until I dragged my way to Stefan's barn and he stayed with me. At first it was torture, smelling the blood of my friends and family and knowing that at any time, I could kill them.

I was a monster.

But then, after I hated myself for a good month or two, God showed me that I wasn't all that bad. He still loved me, monster or not. In His eyes, I was no different from the humans.

I changed Stefan some years later, when I was strong enough to do it. Gabriela came next, because after months of trying to stay away from her, she finally came up to me and said that if I didn't change her, she would send Valentin after me. Even though I was way stronger than Valentin now, he still scared me. And I really did want Gabriela to be like me because I _needed_ her to be my mate, _needed_ someone to love other than my crazy best friend (Stefan). Life wasn't so bad with them by my side; it got better as our coven became stronger and people knew who we were. We had respect, authority, people were _afraid_ of us. It was awesome, and Traian eventually joined up with us and gave us the idea of ruling the vampire world. ~~

But not all things last forever, as the Volturi were only too happy to point out.

Well I've got news for you Slubberdegullions. Your time to rule is just about to come to an end. You know why?

Because I am an _EVIL GENIUS_.

**A/N: So now you have some of Vladimir's backstory! Yay! **

**Review!**


	15. The one with doooowwwwnnnn!

**A/N: No matter who you are or what you believe or what you do or what you've done, God loves you. **

_The one with doooowwwwnnnn! _

"We could do it," Demetri insisted, much to my delight. I high-fived him and Stefan, kissed Gabriela and ruffled Liliana's hair, pretty much all at the same time. It was five against four. Majority rules!

"I don't know," Fane insisted. "They're so _strong_. What happens if we lose?"

Stefan and I looked at each other. You couldn't afford to think like that, not when you were debating on battling the Volturi.

Joel flexed his muscles. "We'll help," he said, pulling Brita into a hug. They moved to stand beside of us. "Think of the advantages we have. Demetri is on our side, and he knows a _lot_ about how the Guard will attack. They don't know that I exist. I'm a challenge for Felix."

Maggie glanced at Fane, and I saw her squeeze his hand before slowly making her way over to stand beside me. "They aren't very nice. I think we should show them that."

It amazes me how _gentle_ she is. Gentle vampires are pretty much nonexistent. It's a nice change from the normal fierceness of them all.

Fane bit his lip and I could tell he was considering it. "But I could hurt my _sister_," he whispered, staring at the ground. I saw Demetri go rigid out of the corner of my eye. I had completely forgotten about Laura, pushed her to the back of my mind. Her betrayal was like the sting of werewolf venom, a hot pain making its way to my chest.

Gabriela tightened her arms around me, like she knew something was wrong. I smiled at her and every single thought of Laura vanished from my mind. I felt the soft skin of her back beneath my fingers as her shirt rode up a bit. It made me feel all shaky on the inside.

"I don't want to fight her any more than you do, Fane," I said. "We don't have to kill her. You can try and talk some sense into her." I knew I shouldn't have said that, shouldn't have given him false hope, but maybe it was true. Maybe we could make Laura see who was good and who was bad.

"Oh all _right_," he consented. We all cheered and smashed into each other, creating a sound like a rockslide with the biggest boulders in the world.

Demetri and Stefan met eyes with me, identical evil smiles forming across all of our faces. An official army. We had just created an _army_ willing to fight against the Volturi. They were going to go doooowwwwnnnn. Down I tell you! Down.

**OoOOoO**

While the others were devising plans on how to get more vampires to join up with us, I pulled Demetri aside. He was staring off into space, completely unfocused. It wasn't like him, and I knew exactly what he was thinking about, or more appropriately, _who_ he was thinking about.

Valery. He had willingly gone after Liliana for Stefan, being completely unselfish. Then he had saved my life when the werewolf bit me, even though the venom could have killed him. And in the joy I was feeling because I had my own mate, I had completely forgotten that Valery was missing. I felt awful about it.

I looked at Demetri, at the hard-set lines in his face, at the frown that seemed to be permanent. "Go find her."

He exhaled sharply, squinting his eyes and rubbing his temples like they were hurting. "Don't tell me that, Vladimir. Once I get started, once I have her scent in my head, I won't be able to stop. Not until I have her again," he murmured, sounding torn.

I raised my eyebrows. "Is that what it's like? Being a tracker?"

He turned his face to mine. "Don't get me wrong. I love being a tracker; I love the adventure of it. I just have this…_hunger_." He smiled wryly.

"She would be a good addition to our army," I said, trying to persuade him.

"But you need my help here." He sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

I shook my head. "We can handle this for a few days. I've been doing this for two thousand years, remember?" My tone was light and happy, and I was telling the truth, but I would miss him in the days he would be looking for Valery. Wow. Never thought I would be thinking _that_.

He sighed. "Are you sure? I could stay," he said, but this time I could tell he wasn't serious. He was going to go.

I rolled my eyes. "Don't make me get out the chicken suit."

We both laughed, and it was nice to see him smile, even if it was just for a few seconds. "Okay, give me three days and I'll be back. She's farther away, maybe on another continent? I'm not sure. Valery. ValeryValeryValery_Valery_."

He repeated her name for a long time, over and over, never stopping to take a breath. His voice, normally strong and sure, became a weak whisper. Then all of a sudden he took off, grass and dirt flying out from beneath his feet. I think I heard him shout a goodbye as he ran, but it could've been my imagination.

**OoOOoO**

You would be surprised at how quickly word travels in the vampire world. Brita went to Sweden, which was very close to the forest where we had decided our headquarters was located. She came back way quicker than I had expected with two vampires. One was Lacey, who looked disturbingly like Jane, but I quickly found out that she was the exact opposite. Lacey laughed constantly; she was always smiling. Her and Maggie hit it off immediately. Owen, Lacey's mate, was related to Brita in some way, which is why they came to our aid so quickly. He was quiet and brooding, but there was something mysterious about him that led me to believe he would be _awesome_ in battle. Which was good. We needed fighters.

I quickly learned not to underestimate Lacey. She was so tiny and angelic looking; I doubted she would hurt a fly, much less a fellow vampire. But _man_, can she run fast! Even my enhanced sight has trouble keeping up with her. She's a sneaky little person, that's for sure.

Maggie left too, and she took Fane with her. She was going to Egypt for Benjamin and Tia, because Amun respected her gift. Actually, I think he coveted it, but he was too regal to admit it. I knew Amun and Kebi wouldn't allow Benjamin to leave, not now that the Volturi know of his existence. But him and Tia have a rebellious spirit. They'll help us.

Later that night, I thought about our first war against the Volturi. Nonstop fighting for so many years. Was it going to be like that this time around? What if I actually did lose Gabriela? Now that she's alive, I couldn't find the rage against the Italians that I had become so accustomed to. They didn't kill my mate. Maybe that was why they kept her alive; to take away my thirst for revenge. Even though they're the biggest idiots in the world, they're pretty smart sometimes.

I wondered what Demetri was doing. I really hoped he found Valery. But would finding her take away his rage too? Would he want to join back up with them? That was why he joined us in the first place. And he was so reluctant to kill Felix. What if he was a traitor like Laura, spying on us to get the upper hand?

"Uh oh. I know that look. Don't go all schizophrenic on me, dude."

It was Stefan, pulling Liliana along behind him. He hadn't let go of her hand ever since we found her. "I'm sorry," I apologized. "You know me. I can't help it."

He rolled his eyes. "You know we're going to make them mad enough to swallow a horn-toad backwards, right?"

And at that, I cracked up. Only Stefan could make me laugh when I was in one of my so-worried-I-could-eat-my-pants moods. **(A/N: Anna! I put our eat your pants thing in here! Woohoo!)** Once I finally calmed myself down enough to talk, the look on Liliana's face made me lose it again. She was staring at him with a look that clearly said, _oh goodness. He's not entirely sane, is he? I'm mated to an insane vampire. Lucky me. _

Liliana has always been one of those people who could say a thousand words with her eyes.

"You haven't seen the half of it, Lil," I said, using my old nickname for her. It got on her nerves _so _much. Which of course made it even more fun to say.

Her eyes flashed with irritation. "I don't like you, Vladimir." But she was smiling, so I knew she was just kidding.

"Love you too." I walked off, looking for Gabriela. Last time I saw her, she was talking to Joel about recruiting some Russian vampire she remembered. Apparently he had stayed at our castle back in the day, but I had no recollection of him.

**OoOOoO**

Demetri stopped running. He was in Portugal. Or at least that was what he thought. He could have been in the North Pole for all he cared. The only thing that mattered was finding _her. _

Even at the mere thought of her, a shiver ran through his body. He had searched for so long, endlessly, before he met her. **(MUST READ AUTHOR'S NOTE! This is sort of a flashback of how Demetri got with Valery).** ~~When Amun changed him, all those years ago, her scent was in his brain. He could taste it, smell it, almost touch it, but she hadn't even been born yet. And then when she was born, it was like someone had set his tracking senses on fire. It took over his mind. He couldn't think of anything else.

It had taken him almost twenty years for Demetri to get permission from Aro to look for her. He had debated leaving the Volturi several times to find her without his consent, but he just _couldn't_. He knew now that it was Chelsea's gift, forcing him to be loyal. That and the fear of Jane's powers.

But then, one day, Aro had finally told him yes. Demetri could go find whoever had "taken his brain hostage", as Aro had put it. He had an odd way with words.

Valery couldn't have been a more inconvenient human to fall in love with. She had been engaged to a man she had known her entire life. She was a sever hemophiliac, meaning that if she were to get cut, she would just bleed right out and never stop.

Not a good person for a vampire to be near. But Demetri couldn't help it. There was just something _about_ her. Like how she seemed to have the worst luck in the entire world. How she would smile at him and muss his hair. The way her hair frizzed all over the place when they went to the beach that one time. Her weird addiction to chewing gum, both in her human life and her immortal one.

He had loved her for so long before she finally realized it. And the entire time, she was making wedding plans with her fiancé. It was the worst sort of torture imaginable. It didn't even begin to compare to Jane's imaginary flames.

Then Demetri had gone and done the unthinkable, or at least, that was how it went in his mind. Valery was perfectly happy with Cooper (the fiancé), and he had gone and ruined it.

What did he do? Kissed her, of course. And she had kissed him back. **(This is all of the backstory for now, but after I'm done with Immortal, I'm gonna do like a short story on Demetri and Val, just because I **_**love**_** writing Demetri's character! He's fun.)**~~

A snake slithered behind him, following his swift pace through the rainforest. Demetri took a deep breath, closing his eyes. When he tracked someone, he didn't use his eyes. He used his mind.

Imagine a white ball. It's smooth and perfectly spherical, with thousands of little feelers that move around gracefully. A hundred or so of these feelers are growing, shooting towards this purple mist. They try to capture it, to force its location out of it. The mist relents after a few minutes and the feelers make the shape of a very detailed map. They are directions that only Demetri could follow.

The white ball with the feelers is his mind, and the purple mist is Valery's. Her mind has always been easy for him to distinguish. Aro's mist is always mixed up, touching so many different things that its scent is…spread out. Demetri could still find him with ease, but not as easily as he could Valery.

Letting the anticipation of the hunt consume him, Demetri resumed running through the jungle, enjoying the pouring rain. He was going to find Valery.

**A/N: I'm going to Atlanta with my school for a few days, so this will have to tide you over until I get back! I'll try and update Sunday if I can, but no promises as I have a bunch of homework. College teachers don't care if you have a life. Grrrr. **

**Review! Can we shoot for 40? I'll need six to make it. Only six! Ahhhhh! **


	16. The one with the global hunt for V V's

**A/N: You guys are amazing! I got forty-one reviews! I was checking my phone around every two seconds to see how many I had the entire trip and my friends made fun of me the whole time. But anyways, Atlanta was a blast and I'm happy to be back (:**

_The one with the global hunt for vengeful vampires_

Amazed. I am amazed at exactly how many vampires hate the Volturi. It's been a day and we have an army of around nineteen, with recruits still coming strong. Demetri still hadn't shown up, but he said to give him three days. It had been two and a half.

I watched as Gabriela and Stefan trained the newbies. Liliana, Brita, and Joel had left some time ago to acquire blood for us all. I had told them to be as discreet as possible, and I received a bunch of promises and one water balloon thrown at my face from Joel. Apparently big Swedish vampires are very obsessed with water balloon fights. I'm constantly on my guard now because I never know when he'll hurl one at me, and usually there's so much force (gah, I sound like a _physics_ teacher) behind the throw that it could break a tree. Possibly Helen, if you remember her from the beginning of this story. She's our pet tree. And _yes_, having a pet tree is quite normal. Sort of.

There was this one vampire, the one that Gabriela remembered from our ruling days, and she had come back with him a couple of hours ago.

I wasn't sure if I liked him too much. Do you know why? Because he was _creepy_. Like more than I was. I kind of felt offended at that. The overly pale, paper-skinned, white-blonde haired vampire who spoke in whispers and was _way_ too old was supposed to be creepier than some black-haired Russian guy who didn't even have a cool accent. And he was funny, which just made it worse. Well, he couldn't fight worth anything, so I had something on him. He also had no cool stories to tell, and we all know that I have eight bajillion and four of those. He was also a pessimist about _everything_, whereas I am not. Or at least I try not to be.

He also _may_ have a girl name, but it's spelled really cool. Sascha. **(A/N: It's pronounced like "Sasha").**

"So where is this _Volturi_ vampire you've spoken so highly of, Vladimir?"

Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. Sascha materialized in front of me, leaning against a tree and chewing on a piece of grass. It was turning his bright white teeth a very weird shade of green.

"Tracking a recruit," I said, keeping my voice even.

"You sure about that?"

I tried to keep myself from squirming awkwardly. I always had been a fidgety vampire. I didn't want to show that he was making me uncomfortable. And I felt bad for doubting Demetri when he had first left. Thank goodness Stefan had talked me out of my paranoia. "Yes, I'm sure."

He cocked his head. "You doubt him."

It wasn't a question. It was a statement, a complete fact. "Demetri will come back," I said, surprised that my voice was so strong. Usually when someone confronted me about my doubts (except for Stefan or Gabriela), I was all skeptical and I denied everything.

Sascha smiled wryly, like he didn't believe a word that I was saying. "If you say so."

There was a _whoosh_ as he ran off, making the snow fly up behind him. I heard a slight crunching sound, one that I was very familiar with.

"Gabriela." I grinned at her, offering my arms. She came over to me immediately, molding her body to mine in the way that only she could. Since both of us were vampires, we were the same temperature. But her skin felt so cold against mine, like it always did when she had been up and moving.

"He's…different," she said, pointing after Sascha.

I raised my eyebrows. "To say the least, yes, he's _different_."

She punched my shoulder a little harder than necessary, but it was still playful. "He might hate the Volturi even more than you do."

"Not possible!" I protested, throwing her over my shoulder and taking off into the woods. I had absolutely no idea where I was going, but that was okay. With Gabriela, getting lost was always a good thing. Always.

"Mir?" She sounded soft, gentle, and very scared. I stopped running and set her down in front of me. Here eyes were red, but just barely. Black was starting to make the red fade away.

"Yeah?"

"Don't let them take me away again," she whispered. "This time, I'm staying beside of you. Throughout the _entire_ battle."

I laughed. "Well I'm glad you suggested that, because Stefan wouldn't have agreed if I talked to him about it. He's got this idea that if we split up, we'll be more powerful or something like that."

She kicked off the shoes that she had picked up in the city after we had gotten Liliana from the werewolves. "Was he planning on separating himself from Lil during the fight?"

"Nope."

She rolled her eyes. "Typical Stefan." Her jacket was suddenly not on her anymore. It fell to the ground on top of her shoes.

I finished her job for her, taking off her dress. Maybe I ripped it. I'm not entirely sure, nor do I care at all. My clothes certainly were not wearable anymore, not after she was through with them.

**OoOOoO**

Demetri showed up later that night with a pretty brunette holding hands with him. There was a genuine smile across his face and the frown lines that I had gotten used to were pretty much gone. There was just a hint of worry in his eyes, and it became more and more prominent every time he looked at Valery, which was quite often.

He didn't seem remotely surprised at the new recruits, though I think Sascha was definitely amazed that Demetri showed up in the first place. He had been so _sure_ that Demetri was a spy. Well ha! The Romanians are obviously more fun to be loyal to than the Slubberdegullions.

That just goes to show you that I am more awesome than Caius is, because who would be loyal to my bitter brother? Plus I'm the older sibling, which makes me cooler than him. And because I am older, I win at everything. Except for chess. That game is hard.

Most of the new vampires were so scared of Demetri. I think they jumped back a good few feet when he ran into the clearing with that maniacal grin on his face he got when he had found something he was tracking. I told them they were lucky he wasn't wearing a chicken suit, which got me a few weird looks. Then the people I had sent out for blood came back and everyone was temporarily distracted.

When we were finished, Stefan, Demetri, and I had a talk away from everybody else.

"Do they know what they're getting themselves into?" Demetri asked.

Stefan popped his knuckles, a sure sign that he was nervous. "I hope so. I don't exactly want to run around creating an army of newborns. That didn't work out so well the last time somebody tried it."

Demetri narrowed his eyes. "That Victoria woman? Ah, she was _insane_, dude. As in, she could have been a friend to Jane."

"Oh come on," I said. "_Nobody_ is capable of being friends with Jane. Well, except for Alec. But he's just as crazy as she is, just in a different way."

Demetri's eyes darkened. All my worries of his rage against the Volturi disappearing went away when I saw how angry he looked. I wondered if Valery's prison was worse than Liliana's.

"We need more people," Stefan said, bringing us back to the more pressing subject.

I nodded. "We have what, twenty-three including ourselves and Valery?"

"Something like that," Stefan agreed.

Demetri groaned. "We are going to have to do a global hunt for vengeful vampires, aren't we?"

"Dude! That sounds epic." Stefan and I spoke simultaneously, which made me like the manhunt idea even more. We could travel fast and there were definitely more Slug-hating vampires out there if you knew where to find them, which I did.

"I'll see what I can do," Demetri said. "Val might know a few people."

"Can we call them VV's?" I asked. They both looked at me like I was going insane. "You know, for vengeful vampires?"

Demetri rolled his eyes. "Fine. Val might know a few _VV's_."

I high-fived him. "Now that is what I'm _talking_ about!"

Stefan turned to me with an evil look on his face. "I call finding Sorelli!"

"I wanted Sorelli!" Sorelli was a Greek vampire who had offered us a spot in her coven after the first Romanian/Volturi war. We had declined, but she said we would always be allies.

"You know who that leaves you with, right?"

I frowned. I _did _know, though I didn't want to admit it. "Can we just forget about him? He's not entirely necessary, is he? And he did ditch us before we were attacked the first time. Who says he'll be any help this time?"

"Who are you guys talking about?" Demetri asked, sounding completely clueless.

"Traian," I grumbled. "He turned me."

"Vladimir, you know he could help us. He's centuries older than you, and the Volturi. There could be an advantage there," Stefan insisted.

I huffed. "_Fine_. But I get to hunt with Sorelli when you guys get back. You have to hunt with Sir Creeps a Lot."

He smiled at the nickname we had given him when we were both human. Life was so different then, so much simpler, but it was so much better now. I loved being a vampire.

"We can leave Joel and Brita with the newbies. Maggie said she could win people over pretty easily, and we'll send Fane with her because he may attack us if we try to separate them," Demetri suggested.

"You guys ready to go searching for VV's?" I yelled.

"I would be, if you wouldn't call them that," Stefan said, smacking me upside the head.

"It annoys you, which makes me want to keep calling them that. You should know that by now."

"Yeah, whatever. I'm leaving now."

As Gabriela and I ran to who-knows-where (Traian always had the best places to hide. It was one of the reasons he had survived undetected for so long) I thought about the last time I had trusted anyone other than Stefan. I almost couldn't remember it because it was so long ago. It seems that vampire wars bring more people together than they do apart.

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait! I've been really busy with schoolwork and trips and whatnot, but here you go!**

**Revieeewwwwwwwwwww. **

"**Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory He will reveal to us later"**


	17. The one with the catchy song

**A/N: Hey everybody! How are you guys? Hopefully good, because it's SPRINGTIME! I love warm weather (:**

**And by the way, I'm in this weird I-want-to-write-a-light-chapter mood, so this is totally random but there's still plot developments and junk. And Fall Out Boy is now off of hiatus, so I am celebrating.**

_The one with sugar we're going down swinging_

"_Why_ would he be at a concert? Vladimir!" Gabriela yelled over the loud noise of people screaming and some dude singing.

She said my full name. That was how I knew she was mad. "The more important question is, why _wouldn't _he be at a concert," I corrected her.

I saw her eyes roll even though there were at least ninety-four people in between us. So Traian wasn't at the concert I had suggested. I knew he wouldn't be here; it was too crowded, too full of humans for his liking. He preferred the damp darkness of caves.

It occurred to me that we probably should have gone to Florida first. There was an underwater cave there, one that had been around for ages. Gabriela had thrown out that idea, but I said that he might be at this concert.

In all truth, I knew he wouldn't be at the concert. I just had this song in my head and I heard the band playing it from a few miles away, so I ran really fast to hear it. Maybe then it will go away, because having a song in your head that never leaves is probably the most annoying thing about being a vampire. You don't sleep, so you have to hear it playing over and over and over and OVER again.

I yanked Gabriela out the door and breathed a sigh of relief. "To Florida!"

She glared at me. "If he's there, then you have to hunt for me for a week."

"_What_? I don't remember us betting on who could find him first."

"Well we are now," she said, and ran off. I was forced to trail behind her.

As I ran, I had the _same_ song stuck in my head. Something about going down swinging? And deer antlers? The word sugar was in there, too. The tune of the song just kept repeating itself over and over in my head and it was the most annoying thing in the world, except for Stefan when he found out a new book by this author he's obsessed with was going to be released a few months late. He complained nonstop for three weeks straight before I _finally_ got him calmed down. I have annoying friends.

That was when I heard it. There was a slight crashing sound that came from somewhere behind us, followed by a whispered curse. I glanced back, trying to see who it was. But, as a lot of people don't realize, vampire vision doesn't work all that well in the dark. It's still a billion times better than a human's, but not as good as it would be with sunlight.

"Gabriela," I muttered. She jerked her head, signaling that she heard it too. I wondered which one of them it was. Maybe another tracker? No. That couldn't be it. The Volturi's only tracker was Demetri, wasn't it? Unless one of them had been following us ever since we left Italy. But that was impossible. One of us would have noticed the presence of an evil Italian gormogon **(A/N: gormogon means monster)** amongst us, wouldn't we?

My subconscious, always the rebel, was hoping that just _maybe_ it was Laura running away from the Volturi to join back up with us. _And then what_? _Gabriela is here. She's my mate. I love her more than Laura. Laura is a _traitor_, Vladimir. Get your feelings under control_. _And Fane would totally kill you. Not that you couldn't beat him up or anything. Okay dude, stop talking to yourself. Kinda creepy._

It seems that my subconscious was right in a very strange sort of way. It _was_ Laura that was stalking us, but she definitely wasn't here to turn against the Volturi. She looked absolutely furious, her bright red newborn-eyes glittering with hate. Her rage seemed to be turned towards Gabriela, and that confused me. How could anyone be mad at her? She was too nice and pretty.

Geez. I'm one conflicted vampire, aren't I? One second I'm all confused about my feelings for Laura and the next I want nothing to do with her. Maybe she had a gift that caused indecision in others around her. It would make sense, wouldn't it?

"Can we run faster?" Gabriela asked, grabbing my hand and tugging me along. "She's looking at me funny."

Laura was still a few hundred feet away from us, but she was a newborn. She could run fast. Then again, she was no two-thousand-year-old who was _this_ close to having revenge on his eternal enemies. And running fast is my specialty. Especially when I'm running from people who I'm not entirely sure about.

"Go for it," I said, and we both poured on the speed.

**OoOOoO**

We finally managed to trick Laura somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The water mixed our scents up and confused her, and after smelling a few sharks and a whale, she apparently decided she had to go hunting even though she drained a few people when she first caught our scent at the concert.

I don't know how, but somewhere in the middle of running and swimming and generally trying to remain hidden, Gabriela caught Traian's scent. I couldn't smell it yet, but she did have stronger senses than me. She was just in front of me, zipping through the water like a madman. Or perhaps a madwoman-vampire. Yeah I like that better.

I was beginning to get nervous.

See, Traian was…intimidating. Sure he was small and skinny like most of us Romanians, but his attitude boosted him a good three feet. That puts him at like eight feet tall and he's not my favorite person in the entire world. I don't really know why. Maybe because he used to play pranks on me all the time before the Volturi's attack. I mean, I like practical jokes as much as the next guy, but Traian's were not very nice. And he called me short. I'm _not_ short. I prefer vertically challenged.

At least he might scare Aro a little bit. They seem to have the same weird personality, only Aro actually liked Jane. Traian couldn't stand her. _Witch twin_.

I wasn't exactly sure how he would react to Demetri. Probably like Sascha had. _Creep_. Of all the vampires in the world, we get stuck with the one who has the personality of a serial killer.

Though I suppose that technically, vampires are serial killers. We kill humans when we feel a need to, but our need is hunger. Not a psychological disorder. And no jokes about me being somewhat schizophrenic are allowed. It isn't my fault that evil Italians have hunted me for the majority of my life.

Little bubbles floated up from somewhere beneath me.

"He's close!" Gabriela yelled, poking her head up from under the water. Her blond hair was plastered to her face.

I still didn't smell him. Was my nose defective or something? Maybe it was a side effect from the werewolf venom. Yeah. That had to be it. "Where?"

"If I knew that, I wouldn't be looking, would I?"

"Yeah, yeah. Blonde moment. It happens."

She laughed and stuck her head back underwater. More bubbles popped, but this time they were all around me, like something was swimming in circles. I went under, the water turning my vision a weird cloudy blue color. There was a little white and yellow blur to my right, a shape I recognized as Gabriela. There was also a graceful _something_ swimming a bunch of meters away from me. It didn't exactly look like a fish, but it was too far away for me to tell what it actually was. So I swam deeper. I saw a transparent blob sinking rapidly, only this blob looked suspiciously like Traian.

What was he _doing_? Why was he sinking? Was this another one of his jokes?

I started moving faster, trying to catch up to him. I saw that it was Traian; only he didn't look exactly _right_. There was something missing from him. Something kind of important, unless you happen to be a headless horseman.

That's right. You guessed it. I was trying to catch up to his lifeless body, which was sinking so fast because it probably weighed a ton. When vampires die, we literally turn to stone. Really heavy flammable stone.

_Laura_. She had killed him. I was surprised by exactly how much that hurt. I mean, I hadn't even talked to this guy in almost a millennium. He had ditched our coven when we needed him the most. I didn't even _like_ him that much.

But still. I had known him for forever. Oh Laura was so going to _pay_.

And revenge is my specialty.

I was planning my attack when I remembered those little bubbles that had come to the surface when Gabriela said she smelled Traian. And that red shape I saw when I was trying to look around underwater.

Oh joy.

My mate was alone with Laura, who had just killed a vampire with no hesitation.

**A/N: I'm sorry! Cliffhanger because I couldn't think of anything else. And this chapter is scarily short. My bad. It'll be longer next time!**

**Review?**


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